''■ ' 't^: 






'%'' 



THE WORLD'S 
PEOPLES . . 






By DR. A. H. KEANE. 

ETHNOLOGY. In Two Parts : I. Fundamental Ethnical 
Problems ; II. The Primary Ethnical Groups. 
Cambridge University Press, 3rd edition, 1901. 
"On this subject Prof. Keane speaks as a first-hand 

authority of the highest rank." — AcadcDty. 

MAJif PAST AND PRESENT. Cambridge ; stereotyped 
edition, 1900. 

" It ought to be bought by every public library, member 
of Parliament, colonial official, missionary, and novelist." 
— The Speaker. 
THE GOLD OF OPHIR. Stanford, 1901. 

"To explain the origin of the Zimbabwes and their gold 
traffic we must turn to Prof. Keane's brilliant essay." 
— Athenceum. 

THE BOER STATES, LAND AND PEOPLE. Methuen, 
1901. 

" This is a book to buy, read, and keep— not to lend. It 
is too valuable — an absolutely satisfying bit of absolutely 
impartial work." — Vec/is. 

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Longmans, 
1878. 
"No one needs a better introduction to the subject.'" — 
Alhenoeum. 

THE INDO-CHINESE AND INTER-OCEANIC ' RACES 
AND LANGUAGES. Triibner, 1880. 
" Mr. Keane's theory is striking and original, and seems 
to fit into nearly all the conditions. — Times. 

ETHNOLOGY OF EGYPTIAN SUDAN. Stanford, 1884. 

''Prof. Keane is acknowledged to be the first ethnologist 
of the da5'. . . . The present brochure gives in 24 pages 
the most complete account of the ethnology of Eg3'ptian 
Sudan extant.*' — Pithlisher and Bookseller's Journal. 




Photo by permission of Mr. Cecil H. Firmin 

FIG. I.— A YOUNG MENDE GIRL, EASTERN SIERRA LEONE 
With silver face ornaments 



THE WORLD'S 
PEOPLES 

<tA POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THEIR 

BODILT & MENTAL CHARACTERS, 

BELIEFS, TRADITIONS, POLITICAL 

tAND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS 



BY 

A. H. KEANE, LL.D., F.R.A.I. 

Late Vice-President R. Anthrop. Institute ; Corresponding Member 
of the Paris, Rome, Florence, Washington, and Polynesian Anthrop. 
Societies; Author of "Ethnology," "Man Past and Present" 
"The Gold of Ophir," "The Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races" 
"The late Boer States," etc. 



WITH 270 ILLUSTRATIONS 
REPRODUCED FROM 
ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS 



New York 
G. P. PUTNAM-'S SONS 

27 and 29 West 23 rd Street 
1908 



'&4 



PREFACE 

To the sub-title, which expresses somewhat fully the main scope of 
this work, little need here be added. It aims above all at presenting 
as clear and comprehensive a picture of " the World's Peoples," as 
they are now constituted, as could be unfolded within the limits 
of a moderate-sized volume. When within these narrow limits — 
narrow for such a vast subject — room had further to be made for 
an exceptionally large number of illustrations, it was soon found 
that the text would need the utmost condensation consistent with 
clearness and adequate treatment. This tour de force, as it may 
be called, I have endeavoured to execute by two processes, a 
careful selection of really typical " samples " from a multiplicity 
of claimants, all clamouring to be heard, and a rigorous avoidance 
of perplexing or debatable topics. 

Let me explain. It was obviously impossible to describe at 
any length the primitive ways of all the more savage peoples of 
South America. Brief references had, therefore, to suffice for most 
of them, while three — the Brazilian Botocudos, the Patagonians, 
and the Fuegians — were chosen for more ample treatment, as 
being perhaps the races most representative of sheer savagery 
still surviving in that part of the world. So elsewhere I am fain 
to put forward the plea : ex uno disce omnes, " from one learn all." 

The eschewing of debatable questions presented all the less 
difficulty, since this work appeals, not so much to specialists, as 
to the general reader, who wants a broad and intelligible view of 
tribal, national, and social relations, and does not care to be worried 
^about such abstruse matters as, for instance, the origin of exogamy, 
^he group or communal marriages of the Australian aborigines, the 
practice of magic in connection with primitive beliefs, and so on. 
AU the more readily can the discussion of such problems be 

vii 



viii Preface 

dispensed with, since the conclusions arrived at even by distin- 
guished anthropologists are doubted, or questioned, or rejected 
by others, who tell us that they "bristle with fallacies," "are very 
questionable," " far from probable," " unproven," or else infer with 
Mr. Andrew Lang that " the time will never come when more 
than a faintly probable theory of Australian social evolution can 
be formed." 

This book therefore deals, not with faint probabihties, but with 
established facts, while here and there opportunity has still been 
taken to point out, for instance, the obvious origin of such universal 
institutions as tabu, or the totem, which have given rise to so much 
mystification on the part of speculators beginning at the wrong end. 
All the activities of early man were exclusively engaged in the quest 
of food and in self-preservation ; hence many things which now 
seem to form essential parts of religious systems are of a purely 
social, or, say, mundane nature, antecedent to all religious, or, 
say, supernatural, beliefs. With a view to establishing this funda- 
mental truth, too often obscured by theorists approaching these 
subjects from the subjective standpoint, or with preconceived notions 
of what ought to be, special attention has here been paid to the 
religious element in the psychological development of social and 
poHtical institutions. This is the less to be regretted, since the 
origin of natural religions is now a question with which the leaders 
of thought and the intelligent public are greatly interested, and 
also because other matters, such as dress, diet, marriage and funeral 
rites, are amply dealt with in The Living Races of Mankind, of 
which this work may be taken as a sequel. 

A. H. KEANE. 



ArXm-Gah 

79 Broadhurst Gardens, N.W. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

THE HUMAN FAMILY ........ I 

CHAPTER II 
GENERAL SURVEY 1 3 

CHAPTER III 
THE OCEANIC NEGROES AND NEGRITOS ..... 29 

CHAPTER IV 
THE AFRICAN NEGROES AND NEGRITOS ..... 70 

CHAPTER V 
MONGOLIC OR YELLOW DIVISION . . . , . • 15^ 

CHAPTER VI 
MONGOLIC DIVISION {continued) : the tibeto-indo Chinese 

AND MALAYANS . . 188 

CHAPTER VII 
AMERICAN (aMERIND) OR RED DIVISION . . . .226 

CHAPTER VIII 
AMERIND DIVISION {continued) ...... 249 

CHAPTER IX 
CAUCASIC OR WHITE DIVISION 307 

CHAPTER X 
CAUCASIC DIVISION {continued) 335 

INDEX ........... 429 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE 

The Publishers desire to thank the many contributors 
of photographs to this work. They have endeavoured in 
every case to acknowledge under each picture the name of 
the photographer or contributor. But with regard to the 
pictures on pages 33 to 37 (Figs. 11 to 14) acknowledgment 
should have been made to Mr. R. Parkinson, who very 
kindly sent them to the publishers for their use. Mr. 
Parkinson is the author of a valuable German work entitled 
" Dreisig Jahre in der Sudsee." The publishers' obligations 
are especially heavy to Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., 
K.C.B., etc., for African photographs, to Dr. Shufeldt for 
North American types, and to Professor N. Loen for a 
valuable contribution of Mexican types. They also desire 
to acknowledge with thanks the use of photographs from 
the following : the Secretary of the Royal Geographical 
Society, the Professors of Anthropology in the Museums of 
Paris and Leyden, and the Ethnological Museum at Rotter- 
dam ; the Trappist Mission, Natal, the London Society 
for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, the Moravian 
Mission, Dr. W. A. Abbott, Admiral Sir William Acland, 
C.V.O., Mr. John Bagot, Admiral Sir C. A. G. Bridge, 
Mr. E. Bristow, Dr. Chalmers, Mr. A. de S. Correa, 
Herr W. Dittmer, Mr. Diamond, Mr. Darrah, Mr. Cecil H. 
Firmin, Mr. Ernest Gedge, Herr K. Gunther, Miss Beatrice 
Grimshaw, Dr. W. F. Grenfell of the Royal Mission to Deep 
Sea Fishermen, Mr W. Hermann, Sir W. C. Hillier, 
K.C.M.G., Mr. H. V. C Hunter, Dr. Paul Hyades,' Prof. 
Albert Ernest Jenks, Mr. C. B. Kloss, the late Miss 
Kingsley, Herr C. Kroehle, Mr. W. J. Harding King, M. 
Ch. Lefebure, Mr. J. J. Lister, Captain M. Le Ferrar, 
Mr. L. Loat, Mr. H. Gordon Lewer, Mr. J. Madsen, Mr. 
E. H. Man, Mr. Machado, Mr. E. Delmar Morgan, Prof. 
James McCarthy, Mr. Martin, Dr. A. B. Meyer, Mr. R. 
Phillips, Major Pringle, Mr. Pierre Petit, Rev. J. B. Purvis, 
Miss Palmer, Mr. W. C. Palgrave, Mr. Pride, Prof. 
Petrucci, Mr. Henry D. Ridley, Mr. William Allen Reed, 
Mr. K. E. Stahlberg, Major Swayne, R.E. (whose name on 
p. 325, by a printer's error, is unfortunately given incorrectly), 
Mr. V. C. Scott O'Connor, Drs. Paul and Fritz Sarasin, 
the Bishop of Tasmania, H.E. Sir Everard ini Thurn, 
K.C.M.G., Herr Umlarf, and Colonel Waterhouse. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 







PAGE 




PAGE 


Abyssinian . 


• 325 


Corroboree, Australian 


51 


Admiralty Islanders . 


• 37 


Croatians . , 


• 384, 385 


Afghans 


• 397 






Ainus .... 


• 415 


Dahomey Natives 


90, 91 


Algerians . 


. 313, 320-2 


Damaras 


• 138, 144 


Algon quins . 


232, 241, 253 


Danes 


• 376, 377 


Aluru Woman and Child . -117 


Dungans 


210, 211 


American Indian 


• 23 


Dutch 


•373-5 


See also Algonquins, Arecunas, Araucanians, 


Eg^jptians . 




Botocudos, Caribs, Chippeway, Eskimos, 


314-16 


Fuegians, Gauchos, 


Gran Chacoans, 


English 


27, 379, 380 


Huaxteca, Mazahua, Muskhogean, Na- 


Eskimo 


248, 250, 251 


vajo, Patagonians, Peruvians, Pueblos, 






Shahaptian, Siouans, >Sumus, Tarascos, 


Fantis 


. . 89 
. 308 


Yuman, Zapotecs. 




Fez Courier 


Anamese 


. 205 


Filipinos 


220, 221, 222 


Anatolian Turks 




• 177 


Finns . . . . 


. 185, 186 


Andamanese 




. 60 


Frenchmain 


• 353 


Arabs . 




. 322, 327 


Fuegians 


•302-5 


Araucanians 




• 297, 299 






Ardi . 




. 69 


Gauchos 


. 295, 296 


Arecuna 




. 291 


Germans 


• 341, 372 


Armenians . 




• 392 


Gilbert River Natives . 


44, 45 


Australians . 


44 


49, 51, 53, 55 


Gilyak 


• 155 


Austrian 




• 371 


Gold Coast, Natives of 


. 89 






Goras .... 


. 86 


Babira Pygmy Woman 


• 147 


Gran Chacoans . 


281, 294 


Baluchi 


• 394, 395 


Greeks 


• 369, 370 


Bambute Pygmies 


146, 148 


Guinea, Woman of Uppe 


r . -92 


Banks' Archipelago, women of . 41 






Battas 


. 217 


Hammegs . 


109, no 


Bautchis 


• 94 


Hausas 


• 95-7 


Bavarian 


• 341 


Homalin Magistrate (Bui 


-ma) . 197 


Belgians . . . 


• 351 


Hovas . 


• 223 


Berbers 


• 318, 319 


Huaxteca . 


• 279 


Bethlehem, Women of 


• 33^, 332 


Hungarians. 


. 182, 183 


Bhils .... 


• 399 






Bhutian 


. 192 


Iranians 


• 393 


Brazil (Botocudos) 


• 293 


Irish .... 


• 344, 345 


Bretons 


• 348 


Italians 


•361-3 


Bulgarians . 


. 181 






Bundus ~~ . 


. 78' 


J a Luo Fisherwomen . 


. 119 


Burmese 


196-200 


Jakuns 


. 15, 66, 67 


Bushmen . 


139, 141, 143 


Japanese 


. 166-9 






Javanese 


69, 215, 216 


Caribs 


290, 292 


Jews .... 


• 330, 333 


Caucasians . 


• 387 


Johore, Natives of 


. 66 


Celebesians. 


. 213, 214 






Chaldaeans . 


. 401 


Kabyles 


• 309 


Chinese 


. 21, 207-9 


Kalangs 


. 69 


Chippeway 


• 253 


Kalmuks . 


• 157 


Congo, Natives of 


i2r, 


123, 124, 126 


Kameruns , Natives of 


93, 99 



List of Illustrations 





PAGE 






PAGE 


Karen Mission . . . -193 


Sakais 




. 69 


Karens .... 193, 194 


Sakalavas . 




. 224 


Kashmiris ..... 396 


Samoans 




26, 419 


Kathiawars (Aryans of Bombay) 411 


Sarts .... 




. 180 


Kirghizes ..... 179 


Scotch 


. 


. 382 


Koreans . . . . 164, 165 


Senegal Man 


. 


. 76 


Krus 87, 88 


Servian 




. 386 


Kurds . . . -. .393 


Shahaptian 


. 


• 263 




Shilluks 




106, III 


Laos 202 


Siah-Posh Kafirs 




. 412 


Lapp . . . . . .184 


Siamese 




. 204 




Sierra Leone, Natives of 


• 78, 79, 84 


Madagascar, Natives of . 223, 224 


Sikka . . . 




. 64 


Malayans . . 66, 67, 69, 153, 417 


Sinhalese . 




405, 406 


Mandingos ..... 75 


Siouans 228, 236, 244, 


247, 


255, 261 


Maoris ..... 423-6 


Solomon Islanders 




. 40 


Masais 113 


Somali Warrior .. 




■ 317 


Mazahua ..... 275 


South Cape. See New Britain. 


Melanesians ... 17 


Spaniards . 




355, 357 


Mendes . Frontispiece, 79, 80, 84 


Sudanese Soldiers 




. lOI 


Mexicans .... 272, 275-9 


Sumatrans . . 64, 65 


217, 


416, 417 


Mota Islanders .... 41 


Sumus 




. 280 


Murray River, Australians from . 55 


Swedes 




• 383 


Muskhogean .... 258 


Swiss 




365, 367 




Syce 




. 402 


Nagas 195 


Syrians 


328 


329, 332 


Nancowry Harbour, Natives of . 62 








Nautch Girls .... 413 


Tahitian 




. 422 


Navajo 243 


Tangier Courier . 




■ 308 


Negritos .... 220, 222 


Tarascos 




272, 278 


New Britain, Natives of . . 33-5 


Tasmanians 




57 


New Guinea Chief, House of ' . 31 


Tatars 




160 


New Guinea Youth ... 30 


Taupo Fuamoa . 




421 


New Hebrides, Natives of . -39 


Tessos 




115 


Nicobarese . . . 62, 63 


Tibetans 


189 


191, 192 


Nigerians . . . . -94 


Todos 




• 409 
420 


Nilotic Negroes, . 106, 107, 109-11 


Tongans 




Normanby Natives . . -53 


Tsawkoo 




. 201 


Nubians ..... 103-5 


Tuareg 


, 


. 318 


Nuers 107 


Tunguses . 




• 159 


Nyasas 120 


Tunisians . 




• 311 




Turks . . 172 


173, 


175, 177 


Oran Gunong (Sumatra) . . 65 










Uganda, Natives of 




• 115 


Pahang Natives . . . '153 


Uled-Nail . 




• 319 


Pakokuan ..... 196 








Patagonians . . . .298 








Pelew Islander . . . .428 


Veddhas 


407, 


408, 410 


Persians .... 401, 403 


Vei . 




. 85 


Peruvians . . . 283, 285, 287 








Philippine Islanders . . . 220-2 


Wakambi . 




. 83 


Polynesians 


418 


Wandorobos 


, 


• 113 


Port Darwinian . 


49 


Wasogas 


. 


. 83 


Portuguese .... 


359 


Welsh 


, 


• 347 


Pottery-making . 


281 


Wuris 




99 


Pueblo Indians of New Mexico 


267 








Puen Laos .... 


202 


Yoruba 


. 


92 


Pygmies .... 146-8 


Yuman 


• 


. 269 


Rajputs . . . . >. 400 


Zapotecs 




276, 277 


Russians . . . .38 


9, 391 1 


Zulu Kafirs 19, 128, 129, i 


31, 133-6 



THE WORLD'S PEOPLES 



CHAPTER I 
THE HUMAN FAMILY 



One or Many? (p. l) — Cradle (p. 2) — Early Migrations (p. 4) — Routes fol- 
lowed (p. 4) — Settlement of the Habitable World by Primitive Man 
(p. 5) — The Four Primary Groups (p. 5) — Their Antiquity and Inde- 
pendent Evolution (p. 6) — Early Works (p. 7)— The Stone Ages (p. 7) — 
Metal and Prehistoric Ages (p. 8) — Historic Age (p. 9) — Great Age and 
Early inter- Relations of the Four Primary Divisions (p. 10). 

WHEN the thoughtful observer ponders over the many strik- 
ing differences presented by the various human groups 
spread over the habitable world — some black, or almost black, 
some yellow, brown or white ; lank-haired or woolly-headed ; tall 
or short ; savage, barbarous, or cultured — one of the first questions 
he asks himself is, Are all these one or many ? Have they sprung 
from a single or from several stocks ? Do they constitute so many 
members of one family, or of four or more unrelated groups ? The 
answer, already given by those most competent to judge, is that 
the various divisions of mankind are really blood relations, branches 
of one parent stem, members of a single human family, which had 
its rise in one primeval home, and spread thence by slow migratory- 
movements over the globe. This conclusion, which may now be 
confidently accepted, has been reached both by positive and nega- 
tive arguments, which appear to be unanswerable. The view of the 
polygenists, as those are called who hold that there were several 
distinct human species who had no common ancestors, but originated 
quite independently of each other in different parts of the world, 
leads to all kinds of absurdities which require its summary rejec- 
tion. Thus they argue that, as there are a number of funda- 
mentally distinct languages, so there must be a number of 

r 



2 The Woi*Id*s Peoples 

fundamentally distinct peoples speaking them. But such languages 
are reckoned by the hundred, certainly two hundred in America 
alone, and in some regions are crowded closely together, as in the 
Caucasus, the Sudan, and along the north-west Pacific seaboard. 
Are we therefore to infer that these particular regions, inhabited 
by peoples of uniform physical type, have given birth to hundreds 
of distinct human groups ? Is it not obvious that there is no 
arguing from race to speech, and that other explanations must be 
found for all these divers tongues ? 

On the other hand the monogenists, that is, those who hold 
by the unity of mankind, are able to show that all peoples- 
Europeans, Asiatics, African and American aborigines — are fertile 
. among themselves, and are consequently not different species, but 
only different varieties of the same species, comparable, for in- 
stance, to the terrier, the pug, the greyhound, the bulldog, and the 
many other varieties of the single canine species. It will also 
be noticed that these canine varieties, admittedly sprung from one 
ancestor, differ one from the other far more than do the human 
varieties. A huge mastiff might make a mouthful of a mercurial 
toy terrier, whereas a tall Scot is less than twice as tall as the 
smallest African pygmy. Besides, the human varieties all merge 
gradually one in the other through imperceptible transitions, as 
between Finn, Lapp, and Tatar; Bushman, Hottentot, and Herero ; 
Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian ; Japanese, Korean, and 
Mongol ; Uzbeg, Turk, and European, and so on. This considera- 
tion alone would suffice to show that we are here dealing, not with 
specific differences, but with mere varieties, all sprung from a 
common human prototype. 

As man is therefore essentially one, he cannot have had more 
than one primeval home. This human cradle, as we may call it, 
may now be located with some certainty in the Eastern Archipelago, 
and more particularly in the island of Java, where in 1892 Dr. 
Eugene Dubois brought to light the earliest known remains that 
can be described as distinctly human. From the Pliocene (late 
Tertiary) beds of the Trinil district he recovered some teeth, a 
skull, and a thigh-bone of a being whom he named the Pithe- 
canthropus erectus, thereby indicating an "Ape-man that could walk," 
with a cranial or mental capacity of about 1,000 cubic centimetres, 
or about double that of the living higher apes (gorilla, orang, 
chimpanzee, and gibbon), as shown in the accompanying diagram : 



EURO 



LOW 



PITM 



- I.550. C.C 
PEAN 

- I.SSO.C.C. 
RACES 

- 1,000 C.C. 
ERECTUS 




Anl-hropo/d 31-em, 



4 The World^s Peoples 

Here also the line of human ascent, as traced through the Javanese 
"missing link," is seen to spring, not from any of these higher 
anthropoids, as is popularly supposed, but from a common Simian 
stem having its roots far back in the Miocene (Middle Tertiary) epoch. 
In this " first man," as he has been designated, the erect position, 
shown by the perfectly human thigh-bone, implies a perfectly 
prehensile (grasping) hand, with opposable thumb, the chief instru- 
mient of human progress, while the cranial capacity suggests vocal 
organs sufificiently developed for the first rude utterances of articulate 
speech. The Javanese man was thus already well equipped for his 
long migrations round the globe. Armed with stone, wooden, bone, 
and other weapons that lay at hand, and gifted with mental powers 
far beyond those of all other animals, he was assured of success 
from the first. He certainly had no knowledge of navigation, which 
is even still an unknown art to many Amazonian aborigines. But 
that was not needed to cross inland seas, open waters, and broad 
estuaries which were non-existent in Pliocene and later times. The 
road was open across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar and South 
Africa by the now submerged Indo-African Continent. The Eastern 
Archipelago still formed part of the Asiatic mainland, from which it 
is separated even now by shallow waters in many places scarcely 
fifty fathoms deep. Eastwards the way Avas open to New Guinea, 
and thence across Torres Strait to Australia and through the 
Louisiade Islands to the Pacific Ocean, which is now known to be a 
region of subsidence. Thus Dr. Klaatsch, who has recently (1904) 
studied the question on the spot, concludes that the peopling of 
Australia could be explained only by the theory of a former land 
connection, a central point (such as Java) from which in one 
direction had been distributed the Asiatic races, and in another the 
Australian aborigines. In the northern hemisphere Europe could 
be reached from Africa by three routes, one across the Strait of 
Gibraltar, another between Tunis, Malta, Sicily, and Italy, and a 
third from Cyrenaica across the ^gean to Greece, and the British 
Isles from Europe via the Strait of Dover and the shallow North 
Sea. Lastly, the New World was accessible both from Asia across 
Bering Strait, and from Europe through the Orkneys, the Shetlands, 
the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. Here were, therefore, sufficient 
land connections for early man to have gradually spread from his 
Javanese cradle to the uttermost confines of the habitable globe. 
That he did so spread in very early (Pleistocene or even Pliocene) 



The Human Family 5 

times is an established fact, as will presently be seen. Hence, 
although the routes here suggested as followed by him may seem 
somewhat speculative, they must still be accepted, since no others 
were available during the Middle or Late Tertiary period. 

Much trustworthy evidence has been collected to show that 
the whole world had really been peopled during this period, which 
roughly coincides with the Ice Age, when a large part of the 
northern and southern hemispheres was subject to recurrent in- 
vasions of thick-ribbed ice advancing successively from both poles. 
The migrations were most probably begun in pre-glacial times — 
that is, before the appearance of the first great ice-wave, then 
arrested and resumed alternately with the long inter-glacial 
intervals, thus advancing and receding with the spread and retreat 
of the ice-cap, and completed in the post-glacial or early 
Pleistocene epoch, say, some two or three hundred thousand 
years ago. At that time the various wandering groups had already 
made considerable progress both in physical and mental respects, 
as is seen in the Neanderthal skull, which is the oldest yet 
found in Europe, standing about midway between the Javanese 
ape-man and the present low races. All were still very much 
alike, presenting a sort of generalised human type which may be 
called Pleistocene man, a common undeveloped form, which did 
not begin to specialise — that is, to evolve the existing varieties 
until the several Pleistocene groups had reached their respective 
zoological domains. We know from the study of extinct and existing 
animal forms how, for instance, the Camel family, which probably 
originated in North America, is now represented by such allied 
species as the guanaco, vicuna and llama in South America, and 
the Baktrian and Arabian camel in Asia. It was the same with the 
human family, which, originating in Malaysia, is now represented 
all over the world by four main varieties with their endless sub- 
varieties : Negroes or Blacks in the Sudan, South Africa, and 
Oceania (Australasia) ; Mongol or Yellow in Central, North and East 
Asia ; Amerinds (Red or Brown) in the New World ; and 
Caucasians (White and also Dark) in North Africa, Europe, 
Irania, India, Western Asia, and Polynesia. 

The four main divisions of mankind are thus seen to have 
been evolved independently in their several zones from four Pleisto- 
cene ancestral groups of somewhat uniform physical type, and 
all sprung from a common Pliocene prototype. This view 



6 The World's Peoples 

of human origins at once removes the greatest difificulty hitherto 
presented by the existing varieties, which, being sprung separately in 
separate areas from a common parent stem, need no longer be 
derived one from another — white from black, yellow from red, and 
so on — a crude notion which both on physiological and geographical 
grounds has always remained an inscrutable puzzle to serious students 
of mankind. To suppose that some highly specialised group, say, 
originally black, migrating from continent to continent, became white 
in one region or yellow in another, is a violent assumption which 
could never be verified and is opposed to the natural relations. Such 
a group passing from its proper zone to another essentially different 
environment must inevitably have died out long before it had time 
to become acclimatised. The fundamental racial characters are 
the result of slow adaptation to their special surroundings. They 
are what climate, soil, diet, heredity, natural selection, and time have 
made them, and are of too long standing to be effaced or blurred 
except by miscegenation^ a process which assumes the existence 
of other specialised forms, and, as above seen, is rendered possible 
by primordial unity. 

By common descent and separate local developments is further 
explained the surprising resemblance which is everywhere presented 
both by the earliest remains and the earliest works of primitive man. 
Such are the fossil or semi-fossil skulls found in Europe, Egypt, 
Mongolia, and the New World, and the stone implements occurring in 
vast quantities in Britain, France, Belgium, North and South Africa, 
India, North and South America from British Columbia to Tierra del 
Fuego. Ceitain Australian skulls seem cast in the same mould as the 
above-mentioned Neanderthal, while rude stone implements brought 
from the most distant lands are so alike in form and character that 
they might have been made by the same hands. On the banks of 
the Nile objects of European type have been discovered, and others 
collected in Somaliland might have been dug out of the drift deposits 
of the Seine, the Thames or the ancient Solent (Sir John Evans). 
The Pleistocene or Quaternary epoch, as represented by these 
objects of primitive culture, ranged over a vast period of time which 
has been conveniently divided into two great epochs, the Palaeolithic 
or Old Stone, and the Neolithic or New Stone Age, these being 
so named from the material chiefly used by primitive peoples in the 
manufacture of their weapons and other implements. The distinction 
between the two periods, which are not to be taken as time sequences 



The Human Family 7 

since they overlap in many places, is based essentially on the different 
treatment of the material, which during the immeasurably longer 
Old Stone Age was at first merely chipped, flaked, or otherwise 
rudely fashioned, but in the New more carefully worked and polished. 
Evidence is, however, now accumulating to show that progress was 
continuous throughout the whole of the first cultural era, which 
thus tended in favourable localities such as South France, the 
Riviera, and North Africa to merge imperceptibly in the second, so 
that it is not always possible to draw any clear line between the 
Old and New Stone Ages. In one respect the former was towards 
its close even in advance of the latter, and quite a " Palaeolithic 
School of Art" was developed during a long inter- or post-glacial 
period of steady progress in the sheltered Vezere valley of Dordogne, 
South France. Here were produced some of those remarkable stone, 
horn, and even ivory scrapers, gravers, harpoons, ornaments and 
statuettes with carvings on the round, and skilful etchings of seals, 
fishes, reindeer, harnessed horses, mammoths, snakes, and man 
himself, which also occur in other districts. 

Many of the palseoliths have been found in surroundings which 
bespeak a vast antiquity. Such are those from the lowest strata 
of Kent's Cave near Torquay, and from the undisturbed glacial 
drift of the Ouse, Thames, Somme, Seine, Nile, and other streams 
which have since scoured their beds down to depths of 50, 100, 
and even 400 feet. In the Brussels Natural History Museum there 
are flints from the Puy Courny district which are the work of 
intelligent beings who were contemporary with the Dinotherium, 
and are referred by Dr. Rutot and M. Georges Engerrand to the 
Upper Miocene or Middle Tertiary epoch. Other so-called eoliths 
(earlier than the palseoliths) from the plateau drift of Kent date 
from the Middle Pliocene period, and are separated from the base 
of the Pleistocene by the Cromer forest beds which were laid down 
in pre-glacial times, when the long extinct gigantic j5'/^//m^ meridionalis 
( " Southern Elephant " ) roamed the forests of Italy, France, and 
South Britain. In Tunisia many implements lie under a thick bed 
of Pleistocene limestone deposited by a river which has since dis- 
appeared. The now absolutely lifeless Libyan plateau is strewn 
with innumerable worked flints, showing that early man inhabited 
this formerly fertile region before it was reduced by the slowly 
changing climate to a waste of sands. The same story of man's 
great age is told by discoveries in Burma, India, North an4 



8 The World's Peoples 

especially South America, and now also in North Britain, where 
the very existence of the Old Stone Age has hitherto been strenuously 
denied. But the writer has recently had an opportunity of inspect- 
ing some of the many hundred undoubted palseoliths which during 
the course of many years have been collected by the Rev. Frederick 
Smith of South Queensferry in various parts of Scotland between 
Aberdeen and Berwick-on-Tweed. 

Outstanding features of the New Stone Age, to which Sir 
William Turner has a-ssigned a duration of perhaps 100,000 years, 
are the Swiss and other lake-dwellings, the Danish peat-beds with 
their varied contents, the kitchen middens or shell-mounds occurring 
on the seaboard in many parts of the world, the British barrows, 
the dolmens and menhirs ranging from North Africa through Syria 
eastwards to India, Korea, and Japan, and northwards to Brittany, 
the British Isles, and Scandinavia, the megalithic monuments of 
Tiahuanaco in Bolivia. In Scotland the Neolithic Age lasted 
long enough to witness the formation of the Carse clays, which 
now stand 40 or 50 feet above sea-level, but then formed the bed 
of a sound or estuary flowing between North and South Britain. 
Hence the suggestion that, after the separation of Britain from 
the mainland, another land connection, a " Neolithic land-bridge," 
may have enabled Neolithic man to reach Scotland while the 
upheaved terrace was still clothed with the great forest growths 
that have since disappeared. 

In the more civilised regions, such as Egypt, Babylonia, parts 
of Asia Minor, and the ^gean lands, the Stone Ages were at an 
early date followed by a period vaguely designated as "prehistoric," 
during which stone as the material of human implements was 
gradually replaced by the metals, first copper, then various copper 
alloys (arsenic, sulphur, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and especially tin) 
generally called bronze, lastly iron. 

Thus were constituted the so-called Metal Ages, during which, 
however, overlappings were everywhere so frequent that in many 
localities it is quite impossible to draw any well-marked dividing 
lines between the successive metal periods. Indeed a direct 
transition from Stone to Iron may be suspected in some places, 
and in any case the pure copper period appears to have nowhere 
been of long duration except in America, where there was no iron 
and little bronze. 

Besides the metals, letters also^ or at least pictorial writings 



The Human Family 9 

such as the old rock carvings of Upper Egypt, were introduced in 
the Prehistoric Age, which comprises that transitional period dim 
memories of which lingered on far into historic times. It was an 
age of popular myths, folklore, demi-gods, eponymous heroes, 
traditions of real events, and even philosophic theories on man 
and his surroundings, which supplied ready to hand the copious 
materials afterwards worked up by the early poets, founders of 
new religions, and later lawgivers. 

So also in China the early historians still remembered the still 
earlier "Age of the Three Rulers," when people lived in caves, 
ate wild fruits and uncooked food, drank the blood of animals, 
and wore the skins of wild beasts (our Old Stone Age). Later 
they became less rude, learned to obtain fire by friction, and built 
themselves habitations of wood and foliage (our New Stone Age). 
Then came beneficent rulers who introduced orderly government, 
organised society on the basis of marriage and the family, invented 
nets and snares for fishing and hunting, taught the people to rear 
domestic animals and till the land, established markets for the 
sale of farm produce, explained the medicinal properties of plants, 
studied astrology if not astronomy, and appointed " the Five 
Observers of the Heavenly Bodies " (our Prehistoric Age). Thus 
is everywhere revealed the background of sheer savagery which lies 
behind all later cultural developments, while the " Golden Age " 
of the poets fades with the " Hesperides " and Plato's " Atlantis " 
into the region of the fabulous. 

Of strictly historic times the most characteristic feature is the 
general use of letters, most fruitful of human inventions, since by 
its means everything worth preserving was perpetuated, and all 
useful knowledge thus tended to become accumulative. Writing 
systems, as we understand them, were not suddenly introduced, but 
gradually evolved from pictures representing things and ideas to 
conventional signs or symbols which first represent words, as in 
the Chinese script and our ciphers, and then articulate sounds, as 
in our alphabet. Between the two extremes — the pictograph and 
the letter — there are various intermediate forms, such as the rebus 
and the full syllable, and these transitional forms are largely 
preserved both in the Egyptian and Babylonian systems, which thus 
help to show how the pure phonetic symbols were finally reached. 
That must have been at least six thousand years ago, since we find 
various archaic phonetic scripts widely diffused over the Archipelago 



lo The World's Peoples 

(Crete, Cyprus, Asia Minor) in Mykaenean and pre-Myksenean times. 
The hieroglyphic and Cuneiform systems whence they originated 
were very much older, since the rock inscriptions of Upper Egypt 
are pre-dynastic, that is, prior to all historic records, while the 
Mesopotamian city of Nippur already possessed half-pictorial half- 
phonetic documents some six thousand years before the New Era. 

From the pictorial and plastic remains recovered from these 
two earliest seats of the higher cultures it is now placed beyond 
doubt that all the great divisions of the human family had at 
that time already been fully developed. Even in the New Stone 
Age the present European type had been thoroughly established, 
as shown by the skeletal remains of the " Cro-Magnon Race," 
so called from the cave of that name in Perigord where the first 
specimens were discovered. A skull of the early Iron Age from 
Wildenrot in Bavaria had a cranial capacity of 1,585 cubic centi- 
metres, and was in all respects a superb specimen of the regular- 
featured North European. In Egypt, where a well-developed 
social and political organisation may be traced back to the eleventh 
century b.c. Professor Petrie discovered in 1897 the portrait statue 
of a prince of the fifth dynasty (3700 b.c.) showing regular Caucasic 
features. Still older is the portrait of the Babylonian King 
Enshagsagna (4500 B.C.), also with handsome features which might 
be " either Semitic or even Aryan." Thus we have documentary 
evidence that the Caucasic.^ that is, the highest human type, had 
already been not only evolved but spread over a wide area (Europe, 
Egypt, Mesopotamia) some thousands of years before the New 
Era. The other chief types (^Mongol, Negro, and even Negrito) 
are also clearly portrayed on early Egyptian monuments, so that 
all the primary groups had already reached maturity probably 
before the close of the Old Stone Age. 

But these primary groups did not remain stationary in their 
several original homes, but have on the contrary been subject to 
great and continual fluctuations throughout historic times. Armed 
with a general knowledge of letters and the correlated cultural 
appliances, the higher races soon took a foremost place in the general 
progress of mankind, and gradually acquired a marked ascendency, 
not only over the less cultured peoples, but to a great extent over 
the forces of nature herself With the development of navigation, 
and improved methods of locomotion, inland seas, barren wastes, 
and mountain ranges ceased to present insurmountable obstacles 



The Human Family ii 

to their movements, which have never been completely arrested, and 
are still going on. Thus during the long ages following the first 
peopling of the earth by Pleistocene man, fresh settlements and 
readjustments have been continually in progress, although wholesale 
displacements must be regarded as rare events. With few exceptions 
the later migrations, whether hostile or peaceful, were generally of 
a partial character, while certain insular regions, such as America 
and Australia, remained little affected by such movements till quite 
recent times. But in the Old World constant interminglings 
inevitably brought about great modifications of early types, while 
the ever-active principle of convergence tended to counteract the 
divergent process and thus produce a general uniformity, an equiU- 
brium amongst the new blends, such as that established by the 
centripetal and centrifugal forces in the solar system. That is why 
the modern peoples, although often the outcome of many different 
elements, still present each its particular stamp or cachet, so that the 
Englishman or the Italian, for instance, may generally be recognised 
in a group of other nationalities. We see the same process now 
at work in the New World, where the descendants of the early 
British settlers often seem to converge towards the original Amerind 
type. Such assimilation has been noticed especially in Egypt, where 
the present Arab-speaking peasantry show a curious resemblance 
to those of Pharaonic times. When some years ago the wooden 
effigy of an official under Khephren (4200 B.C.) was brought to 
light it was at once named the "village Sheikh," so striking was 
its resemblance to the then living local headman. Thus "the 
Egyptians themselves have come down from the Old Empire through 
all the vicissitudes of conquests, mixtures of races, changes of 
religion and language, so little altered that the fellah [peasant] of 
to-day is often the image of the Egyptians who built the pyramids " 
(S. Laing). This is fully confirmed by the recent studies (1906) 
of Dr. C. S. Myers, who finds that compared with the prehistoric 
Egyptians of 5000 B.C., the present inhabitants show no sensible 
difference in head measurements, and that, from the anthropometric 
standpoint, there is no evidence of plurality of race in modern 
Egypt. But as there is abundant historic evidence of such plurality, 
this only means that the various elements have been merged in 
one in virtue of the principle of convergence, aided no doubt by 
racial interminglings. 

In the general survey of our four primary groups, here 



12 The World's Peoples 

brought together for convenience of reference, the physical char- 
acters of each are those of what may be called the ideal types, that 
is, as they existed in the original cradle-lands before they became 
blurred and pardy even effaced by later secular interminglings. At 
the same time it should be pointed out that these ideal types are 
not absolutely extinct, but still persist here and there in isolated 
or secluded districts where the natives were able to preserve their 
racial purity by keeping aloof from the surrounding populations. It 
is also to be observed that complete loss of the original characters 
and absorption in a different division, as in the case of the Hungarian 
Magyars, who are now Europeanised Mongols, is a somewhat rare 
phenomenon, and that generally speaking the members of the 
different groups retain a sufficient number of their respective bodily 
traits to distinguish them one from another. A normal average is 
established to which all conform, and by which a Chinaman, for 
instance, can always be recognised as of the Mongol connection, 
a Scandinavian as a member of the Caucasian division, and so on. 
This term Caucasian, it should be explained, is not here to be 
taken as merely indicating a native of the Caucasus, but as the 
collective conventional name of the White division, of which 
Blumenbach, founder of the science of ethnology, regarded some 
of the Caucasus natives as perhaps the most typical representatives. 



CHAPTER II 

GENERAL SURVEY 

Negro or Black Division 
I. Eastern {Oceanic) Sectiofi 

ORIGINAL Domain: Malaysia, Andamans, Philippines, New 
Guinea, Melanesia, Australia, Tasmania ; no later expansion. 
Present reduced Domaift : Malay Peninsula, Andamans, 
parts of Eastern Archipelago and Philippines, New Guinea, Melanesia, 
Australia. 

Population : 2,000,000 (?), chiefly in New Guinea and Melanesia. 

Physical Characters : Very variable, differing from the African 
section chiefly in the height, which is generally below the average 
of 5 ft. 6 in. ; the hair, which, though always black, is rather frizzly 
("mop-headed" Papuans) or shaggy (Australians); the shin, very 
dark brown or blackish ; the nose, often large, straight, and even 
aquiline, with downward tip ; the lij>s, less thick and never everted ; 
and Negro traits generally less pronounced (Fig. 3). The Oceanic 
Negritos often closely resemble the African, differing mainly in the 
colour, which is always darker ; the height, which is greater (4 ft. 6 in. 
to 4 ft. 10 in.) ; and the jaivs, which are sometimes more projecting 
(Samangs of Malay Peninsula). 

Mental Characters : Papuans and Melanesians boisterous, trea- 
cherous, and often extremely cruel ; head-hunting and cannibalism 
very prevalent ; generally more savage than the African ; Australians 
better in all these respects, despite painful puber ty rites and a lower 
stage of culture (no tillage, little navigation). No science or letters 
anywhere ; few industrial arts, but artistic sense developed amongst 
the Papuans (elaborate wood-carving and graceful decorative designs, 
and good boat-building). 

Speech : Archaic forms of the Oceanic (Malayo-Polynesian) stock 
language everywhere in Melanesia \ numerous agglutinating tongues 
'of a somewhat uniform type in Australia, with postfixes but no 

13 



14 The World^s Peoples 

terms for the numerals beyond 2 or 3 ; numerous agglutinating 
tongues of divers types in New Guinea, with prefixes and postfixes ; 
in the Andamans a stock language of a highly intricate nature, but 
also without words for the numerals beyond i and 2. 

Religion : Spirit-worship very prevalent, with tabu in Melanesia, 
and totemism in Australia ; 7nana, a subtle essence or virtue like the 
Augustinian grace, is a striking feature of the Melanesian system, 
which is in other respects distinctly animistic, distinguishing between 
pure spirits, that is, supernatural beings that never were in a human 
body, and ghosts — that is, men's disembodied spirits revisiting their 
former abodes. There are prayer, sacrifice, divination, omens, 
death and burial rites, a Hades too, with trees and houses, as on 
earth, also a ghostly ruler, but no supreme being. Little or nothing 
of all this in Australia or New Guinea, where the religious sentiment 
is so little developed that many close observers have failed to 
detect it. 

Sub-sections : Papuans of New Guinea and East Malaysia as far 
west as the island of Flores ; Melanesians, i.e. "Black Islanders," 
who give their name to the Melanesian world comprising the 
Bismarck Archipelago, the Louisiades, Solomons, New Hebrides, 
Banks, Santa Cruz, New Caledonia, Loyalty, and Fiji ; Australians, 
originally scattered thinly over the whole continent, but now dis- 
appearing ; Tasmanians, extinct ; Negritos, formerly widespread 
throughout Malaysia, but now reduced to a few isolated groups : 
Andamanese (formerly called Mincopies) of the Andaman Islands ; 
Samangs, Jakuns and others of the Malay Peninsula ; Aetas of the 
Philippines ; Karons of New Guinea ; and the nearly extinct Javanese 
Kalangs (Fig. 2). 

2. Western (African) Section 

Original Domain : Africa south of the Sahara. 

Later Expansion : Madagascar, North Africa, Southern United 
States, West Indies, Latin America. 

Population {pure and mixed) : Africa, 180,000,000; Madagascar, 
3jOoo,ooo ; America, 25,000,000 ; Total, 208,000,000. 

Physical Characters : Head dolichocephalic, i.e. much longer from 
front to back than from side to side; cephalic index 72, which 
denotes the much shorter transverse diameter, the longitudinal 
diameter being taken at 100; thus the longer the head the lower the 
index, and conversely. The Negritos, both Oceanic and African, are 




From a photo by Dr. W. A. Abbot, per Mr. C. B. Kioss 

FIG. 2,— JAKUNS OF KOMEL, MALAY PENINSULA 
These are Negrito-Malayan half-castes 



1 6 The World's Peoples 

all brachycephalic, i.e. short or round-headed, with cephalic index 
ranging from about 80 to 95 ; height above the average (5 ft. 8 in. 
to 6 ft.) ; but Negritos only 4 ft. or under, seldom over ; skin 
very dark brown or blackish, rarely quite black ; hair short, black, 
woolly, flat in cross-section; jaws prognathous, i.e. projecting; 
cheek-bones rather small and retreating ; lips thick and everted, 
i.e. showing the red inner skin ; brow arched ; nose short and 
flat or slightly concave with wide nostrils ; eyes large, round, 
black, with yellowish sclerotic ; arms disproportionately long ; calves 
undeveloped -^foot flat and broad with low instep and larkspur heel. 

Mental characters: Sensual, unintellectual, lacking the sense 
of personal dignity or self-respect, hence readily bending to the 
yoke of slavery ; fitful, passing suddenly from comedy to tragedy ; 
mind arrested at puberty owing to the early closing of the cranial 
sutures, hence in the adult the animal side is more developed than 
the mental ; hence also no science or letters, slight aesthetic sense, 
and few industrial arts beyond tillage, stock-breeding, weaving, 
dyeing, pottery, woodwork and hardware (iron, copper), sometimes 
of graceful form and ornamentation; cannibalism common, formerly 
perhaps universal. 

Speech : Agglutinating with both prefixes and postfixes ; "stock 
languages very numerous in Sudan, one only in Bantuland, besides 
Hottentot and Bushman tongues ; in Madagascar, Malayo-Polynesian 
exclusively ; in America, European jargons exclusively. 

Religioti : Animistic, Ancestor-worship being much more pre- 
valent than Nature-worship; no supreme being anywhere; chief 
deities Munkidimkulu, with many variants along the eastern sea- 
board; Nzambi^ also with many variants on the west side, both 
intermingling in the interior ; witchcraft, omens, and ordeals very 
prevalent; pure fetishism and human sacrifices in Upper Guinea 
(" Customs "), in Uganda, and other parts ; Obeah and Voudu 
rites with ceremonial cannibalism still surviving in the West 
Indies. 

Sub-sections : Sudanese {Negroes proper) between the Atlantic 
and Abyssinia, and in the Welle basin ; Bantiis, mixed Negroid 
peoples occupying nearly the whole of the continent south of the 
Sudan, all speaking dialects of one stock language, but presenting 
a great variety of types between the pure Negro and Caucasian ; 
Bushmen and Hottentots, South-west Africa ; Negritos, Congo and 
Ogoway forests ; Vaalpens, Transvaal. 




By permission of the Bishop of Tasmania 

FIG. 3. — MELANESIANS 
Softened Negro features, all with frizzly or woolly hair 



1 8 The Wofld*s Peoples 

MoNGOLic OR Yellow Division 

Original Domain : Probably the Tibetan tableland. 

Early Expansion : Mongolia, Siberia, China, Indo-China, 
Malaysia, Mesopotamia (?). 

Present Domain : Tibet, Central Asia, Mongolia, Siberia, 
Manchuria, Korea, Japan, Formosa, China, Indo-China; parts 
of Irania, Armenia and Caucasia ; most of Asia Minor ; parts of 
Russia, Finland, Lapland, the Balkan Peninsula and Hungary ; 
most of Malaysia, the Philippines and Madagascar. 

Population: China, 400,000,000; Japan and Korea, 58,000,000; 
Mongolia, Manchuria and Siberia, 25,000,000 ; Central and West 
Asia and East Europe, 20,000,000; Malaysia and the Philippines, 
48,000,000; Tibet and Tndo-China, 45,000,000; Total, 596,000,000. 

Physical Characters : Head brachycephalic, but somewhat vari- 
able, the cephalic index ranging from under eighty to over ninety ; 
cheek-bones very high and prominent laterally ; jaws orthognathous 
or slightly projecting ; 7iose very short and flat (snub) ; lips thin, 
never everted ; brow low and moderately arched ; eyes small, black, 
oblique, with outer angle slightly raised, and vertical fold of skin 
over inner canthus (a highly characteristic trait) ; foot normal but 
artificially deformed in Chinese women ; colour dirty yellowish and 
light brown ; hair uniformly black, lank, coarse, lustreless, rather 
long, round in transverse section, moustache but no beard ; height 
rather under the average of 5 ft. 6 in., but tall (5 ft. 8 in. or 5 ft. 
10 in.) in North China and Manchuria (Fig. 5). 

Metital Characters : Generally somewhat reserved, sullen, and 
apathetic (Mongols proper) ; very thrifty, frugal and industrious 
(Chinese and Japanese) ; indolent (Malays, Siamese, Koreans) ; 
nearly all reckless gamblers ; science slightly, arts and letters 
moderately developed ; porcelain, bronze work, ivory carving, and 
decorative painting scarcely surpassed (China, Japan, Korea 
formerly); but all plastic and pictorial art defective, lacking per- 
spective, and the human figure mostly caricatured. 

Speech: Three great linguistic families : 

I. Mongolo-Turki {Ural-Altaic), ranging with much lexical and 
structural diversity from Lapland across North Asia to Japan, and 
from the Lena basin through Central Asia, Western Turkestan 
and Asia Minor to Turkey in Europe and Hungary. Japanese 
and Korean stand quite apart ; but all the rest (Manchu, Mongol, 



20 The WofId*s Peoples 

Turki, Finno-Lapp, Magyar) are typical members of the agglutinat- 
ing order of speech, with unchangeable roots and shifting postfixes 
bound together by the principle of vowel harmony. 

2. Tibeto-Indo-Chinese, from the Western Himalayas to the 
Pacific, and from the Great Wall to the Indian Ocean ; originally 
agglutinating, now in every transition of phonetic decay towards 
monosyllabism, which is not a primitive, but a very late condition 
of articulate speech. In the process of decay innumerable homo- 
phones have been developed, which have to be distinguished by 
their tones; hence the members of this family may be called 
monosyllabic lofted languages. Structurally they are isolating, the 
sentence consisting of unchangeable isolated words, the inter- 
relations of which are determined not by inflection or affixes, but 
by iposition, as often in English {James struck John ; John struck 
James'). 

3. Malayo-Polynesian, the " Oceanic " family in a pre-eminent 
sense, ranging from Madagascar across two oceans to Easter Island, 
and from New Zealand north to Hawaii. All are more or less 
agglutinating at various stages of dissolution, but untoned ; vocalism 
predominates, and in some branches the vowels are more stable 
than the consonants. 

Religion : Animism in the widest sense is the dominant note, 
the worship of spirits extending both to the disembodied human 
soul (ancestor-worship, which is now perhaps the most prevalent 
form) and to the innumerable spirits, bad and good, which people 
earth, air, water, the celestial and underground regions. Although 
nominal Buddhists, the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Mongols live 
in terror of the malevolent circumambient spirits, and the Annamese 
scrupulously observe " Roast-pig Day," as they call their All-Souls 
Day, by littering the graves of the dead with scraps of victuals. 
Amongst the Siberians this spirit-cult lakes the form of Shamanism, 
in which the Shaman (wizard or medicine man) is the "paid 
medium " of communication between his dupes and the invisible 
good or evil genii. In Tibet demonology still survives beneath the 
official Lamaism ; the Gilyaks, Ainus, Oronches, and other Eastern 
Siberians are Bear-worshippers ; and the Polynesians have deified 
both the living and dead members of their dynasties. The historical 
religions are largely a question of race, the Mongols proper, Manchus, 
Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Tibetans being at 
least nominal Buddhists ; the Turks, Tatars, and most Malays 



General Sufvey 



Mohammedans ; the Finns, Lapps and Magyars now Christians. 
Other so-called State religions — Confucianism and Taoism in China, 
Shintoism and Bushidoism in Japan — are rather ethical codes 
fostered and upheld for political purposes. The much-cherished 
"filial piety" for the most part means devotion to the reigning 
dynasty, while 
for the theolo- 
gical virtues are 
substituted the 
civic virtues of 
obedience and 
loyalty, the sole 
aim of which is 
to mature good 
citizens. 

Chief Sub- 
divisions : Mon- 
gol Branch: 
Mongols proper, 
Tunguses, Man- 
chus, Koreans, 
Japanese, of 
Mongolia, 
North-eastAsia, 
Japan ; Tiirki 
Branch: Yakuts 
of the Lena 
basin, Kirghizes, 
Uzbegs, Turko- 
mans of West 
Siberia and 
Western Turke- 
stan j Anatolian 
Turks, Osmanli, 

of Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula ; Ugro-Finnic Branch : Finns, 
Lapps, Samoyads, Mordvins, Magyars, of Finland, Lapland, Siberia, 
Russia, and Hungary. Tibeto-Chinese Bra?ich : Tibetans, Burmese, 
Nagas, Shans, Siamese, Annamese, Chinese (Fig. 5); Malayan 
Branch: Malays proper, Javanese, Dyaks, Tagals, Formosans, 
Malagasy, of Malaysia, the Phihppines, Formosa, and Madagascar. 




Photo by Mr. J. Madscn, Copenhagen 

FIG. 5. — A CHINAMAN 
A typical Chinese head— modified Mongol eatures 



22 The "Wofld^s Peoples 

American (Amerind) or Red Division 

Original Domain : The New World. 

Present Restricted Domaiit : The Arctic seaboard, Greenland, 
Alaska ; numerous reservations and some unsettled parts of the 
Dominion and the United States ; most of Mexico, Central and 
South America, partly intermingled with the white and black in- 
truders, partly still in the tribal state. 

Population : Full-blood Amerinds about 10,000,000, Mestizos or 
half-breeds of all kinds, 30,000,000 (?) ; total, 40,000,000 (?). 

Physical Characters : Head extremely variable, ranging from the 
highest dolichocephalous in Greenland to the highest brachycephalous 
in Argentina (cephalic index 66 to 93) ; jaws massive and slightly 
projecting ; cheek-boties rather prominent ; nose large, bridged or 
aquiline ; eyes small, round, straight, black, rarely with Mongolic 
fold ; height generally well above the average, 5 ft. 8 in. to 6 ft. and 
even 6 ft. 4 in. (Bororos, Patagonians) ; but some very undersized 
(5 ft. to 5 ft. 4 in.); as a rule prairie Indians tall, highlanders 
short ; colour normally reddish or coppery, but variable, some very 
dark brown, some yellowish (Amazonians) ; hair uniformly long, 
black, lank, coarse (horse-tail type), round in transverse section ; 
face beardless (Fig. 6). 

Mental Characters : Generally reserved, moody, taciturn, wary, 
with deep feelings marked by an impassive exterior towards strangers ; 
genial and cheerful in the home; strong nervous system with 
great power of enduring physical pain ; high sense of personal 
dignity, though somewhat coloured in romance ; great range of 
culture, from the lowest savage state (Seres, Botocudos, Fuegians) 
to the fairly civilised Aztecs, Mayas, Chibchas, Peruvians, and 
Aymaras ; architecture, engineering, calendric systems, well de- 
veloped; no literature properly so called beyond oral folklore, 
myths, and a few crude historic (?) records ; writing systems mainly 
pictorial and ideographic. 

Speech: A great number of linguistic families, more perhaps 
than in all the rest of the world, but all belonging to the same 
order of speech, the so-called polysynthetic or holophrastic, which 
is exclusively -confined to America. In this system the tendency 
is to fuse all the related terms of a sentence in a single word, often 
of prodigious length. Thus there are, so to say, no separate or 
abstract nouns or verbs, and you cannot say " to strike," or speak of 



General Survey 23 

a man or a boy, but only to strike-hard, or a-tall-man, a-little-boy, 

and the-tall-man-struck-the-little-boy-hard, all in a breath. The 

process is everywhere more or less fully developed, from the Eskimo 

in the extreme north to the Araucanian in the extreme south, and 

the few seeming exceptions, such as the Mexican Otomi, would 

appear to be 

due to later 

disintegration, 

inevitable in 

suchacumbrous 

method. In 

North America 

there are about 

sixty irreducible 

stock languages 

of this order, 

a few (Eskimo, 

Athabascan, 

Siouan, Algon- 

quian, Iroquo- 

ian, Shosho- 
nean) spread 
over wide areas, 
but all the rest 
crowded to- 
gether chiefly 
along the Pacific 
seaboard. It is 
the same in Cen- 
tral and South 
America, where 
over a hundred 
are pressed into 

narrow spaces, while about a dozen (Aztec, Maya, Carib, Arawak, 
Quichua, Guarani, etc.) occupy or formerly occupied wide-stretching 
domains. 

Religioji : Shamanism (see above) is widely diffused amongst 
the North American aborigines. But still more prevalent is the 
cult of the aerial gods who support the four quarters of the heavens, 
and of animals (bear, wolf, raven, jaguar), which has given rise to strange 




Pkoto per Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. 

FIG. 6.— NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN 
Prairie Amerind. The feather head-dress varies with each tribe 



24 The World^s Peoples 

werewolf superstitions, and to totemistic systems analogous to those 
of the Australian natives. Solar worship prevailed in Peru, while 
the cultured peoples of Mexico (Aztecs, Mayas, Zapotecs and others) 
had developed a complete pantheon of ferocious deities, such as 
Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Tlaloc, whose thirst for human blood 
was insatiable. Thus arose an established order of priests, who 
immolated hecatombs of victims on solemn occasions, and presided 
over other sanguinary rites often accompanied by unutterable horrors. 
Aztec women still cast their infants into the Mexican lagoons to 
propitiate the Rain-god Tlaloc. 

Chief Sub-divisions : (i) Northern : Eskimo; Athabascan (Chip- 
pewayan, Taculli, Hupa, Apache, Navajo) ; Algonquian (Cree, 
Chippeway, Mohican, Delaware, Shawnee, Cheyenne, Illinois, etc.) ; 
Iroqtioia?i (Erie, Huron, Mohawk, Tuscarora, Cherokee, etc.); 
Siouan (Dakota, Assinaboin, Missouri, Iowa, Winnebago, Mandan, 
Tutelo, Catawba) ; Muskhogean (Seminole, Choktaw, Creek, Chicka- 
saw, Alibamu, Apalachi) ; Salish ; Shoshone ; Pawnee ; Pueblo (Zuni, 
Hopi, Tegua). 

(2) Central: Opata'Pij)ia{Ymn2i, Cora,Tarahumara, Tepeguana); 
Nahiian (Aztec, Huichol, Pipil, Niquiran); Maya-Quiche (Huaxtec, 
Maya, Lacandon, Quiche, Pocoman, Zendal, Choi, Zotzil, Cachiquel, 
Mame) ; Zapotec ; Mixtec (Mixe) ; Lencan (Chontal, Wulwa, Rama, 
Guatusa) ; Bribri ; Cuna. 

(3) Southern : Chibcha ; Choco ; Quichua (Inca, Chanca) ; 
Aymara (CoUa, Calchaqui); Antisuyu ; Jivaro ; Zaparo ; Pano ; 
Ticuna ; Chuncho; Carib ( Macusi, Akawai, Bakairi, Arecuna) ; Arawak; 
(Atorai, Wapisiana, Maypure, Parexi) ; Warrau ; Chiquito ; Bororo ; 
Botocudo, Tupi-Guarani (Chiriguana, Caribuna, Goajira, Omogua, 
Muridrucu) ; Payagua ; Mataco ; Toba ; Arauca?i ; Puelche ; Tehuelche 
(Patagonian) ; Fuegian (Ona, Yahgan, Alakaluf). 

Caucasic or White Division 

Original Home : North Africa between Sudan and the Mediter- 
ranean. 

Early Expansion : Europe, the Eurasian Steppe between the 
Carpathians and the Pamir, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, 
Arabia, Mesopotamia, Irania, India, North-east Asia, South-east 
Asia, Malaysia, Polynesia. 

Present Domain : North Africa ; most of Europe ; parts of South- 
west and Central Asia ; South Africa ; parts of Siberia, Irania, India, 



General Survey 25 

Indo-China and Malaysia ; Polynesia ; Australia ; New Zealand ; 
North and South America. 

PopulatioJi : Europe, 355,000,000; Asia, 300,000,000 (?)j America, 
115,000,000; Africa, 20,000,000; Australasia, 10,000,000; Total, 
800,000,000 (?). 

Physical Characters : Three types : (i) Northern or Teutonic: 
Head, rather long; cephalic index 74 to 79; jaivs orthognathous, 
very slightly projecting ; cheek-bones generally small, not prominent ; 
?iose large and straight ; eyes blue or grey with white sclerotic ; 
colour white or florid ; hair rather long, straight or wav}', fair, flaxen, 
very light brown or reddish, full beard ; height above the average, 
5 ft. 8 in. to 6 ft. (Fig. 8). 

(2) Central or Alpine : Head short ; cephalic index 80 to 90 ; 
jaws and nose as in (i); eyes brown, hazel, or black; colour pale 
white, rarely florid; hair dark brown, chestnut, or black, rather 
short and straight or wavy; small beard; /z^/^/z/ medium, 5 ft. 5 in. 
or 5 ft. 6 in. 

(3) Southern or Mediterranean : Headlong; cephahc index 
72 to 78 ; jaws and nose as in (i) ; eyes generally black and bright ; 
hair black, wavy or curly ; colour pale olive or swarthy, never 
florid ; height generally undersized, 5 ft. 4 in. to 5 ft. 6 in. 

Mental Characters : Temperament of (i) slow and somewhat 
stolid, cool, collected, resolute, persevering ("dogged"), enterpris- 
ing; of (2) and (3) fiery, fickle, bright, impulsive, quick but unsteady, 
with more love of show than sense of duty ; all three highly imagina- 
tive and intellectual ; hence science, arts, poetry, and letters fully 
developed, to some extent eve:g^ from very early times ; most civilisa- 
tions (Egyptian, Saosean, Assyrian, Persian, Indian, Mykenaean, 
Greek, Italic) have had their roots in Caucasic soil.. "^v^'^V 

Speech : Several linguistic families both of the agglutinating and 
higher inflecting order of speech ; in the- latter the formative elements 
tend to merge completely in the root, which thus becomes endlessly 
modified ; reduplication, a primitive trait, also persists, as in the 
Latin cado, cecidi ; mordo, inomordi, etc. ; the tendency was at first 
to build up these intricate forms synthetically, as in the classical 
languages, and then break them down analytically in their modern 
representatives. Thus the Latin pater, patris, patri becomes in 
liaXiSin padre, del padre, al padre, etc. ; amabitur^sara amato, etc. 
There are three great inflecting families : Hamitic (Old Egyptian, 
Beja, Galla, Somali, Berber, perhaps Basque), North Africa, Western 



26 



The World*s Peoples 



Pyrenees (?) ; Semitic (Himyaritic, Arabic, Abyssinian, Assyrian, 
Syriac, Phoenician, Hebrew), Arabia, Abyssinia, Mesopotamia, Syria, 
Palestine ; Aryan or Indo-European (Sanskrit, Zend, Persian, 
Armenian, Greek, Slavonic, Lithuanian, Latin, Teutonic, Keltic, 
and nearly all the modern European tongues), India, Irania, most of 
Europe and the European colonies, with United States and Latin 
America. The agglutinating tongues are more numerous, but con- 
fined to narrower areas, Basque to the Pyrenees, Georgian, Circas- 
sian and several others to the 
Caucasus, Dravidian and 
Kolarian to Central and 
Southern India. 

Religion: Now various 
forms of Chris fianityin Europe 
and the Colonies ; Hinduism 
in India ; Islam in Central 
Asia, Siberia, Turkey, Arabia, 
North Africa, Irania, India, 
Malaysia; but originally 
Nature-worship was more pro- 
nounced than the cult of 
ancestors. The Egyptians did 
not worship but embalmed 
the dead ; the chief gods of 
the Semites were the sun and 
moon, and those of the Aryans 
Dyaus, Indra, Zeus, Jupiter, 
Apollo, Saturn, etc., all per- 
sonified elements of the upper 
regions. Later these forces 
were symbolised in wood or stone, which led to idolatry — that is, the 
worship of the image itself, which still persists amongst the uneducated 
in some parts of Christendom ; the old belief in magic, demons, witch- 
craft, omens, ghosts and allied superstitions is also still prevalent. 
Out of the general polytheism were slowly evolved various shades of 
monotheism, whence arose the historical religions of the West 
{Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism), while crass polytheism 
persisted in the East {Brahmajiism in India, degraded forms of 
Buddhism in Ceylon and elsewhere). Intermediate between mono- 
theism and polytheism is the Persian dualism, which refers light 




Photo by T. Andrew, Apia, Samoa 

FIG. 7. — A SAMOAN CHIEF 
Fine Caucasic features 




Photo by J. W. McLellan 

FIG. 8. — AN ENGLISH FISHERMAN 
Notice the large straight nose and full beard 



28 The World's Peoples 

and all good to Ormuzd and his host of angels, night and all 
evil to Ahriman and his host of demons. Although already 
denounced by Isaiah, whose Jehovah is the one source of all 
things (" I make peace and create evil," 45, 7), this twofold principle 
found its way into the early Christian teachings, and explains the 
demonology which with all its attendant horrors flourished in 
mediaeval times and is not yet quite extinct. As there is a 
heaven for the chosen few, so there is a hell with its Ahriman 
and host of demons for the multitudes foredoomed thereunto 
(Calvinism). 

Chief Sub-divisiotts : Hamites : Egyptians, Bejas, Afars, Somals, 
Gallas, Masai, Turkanas, Wahuma of North-east Africa, mainly 
between the Nile and the Red Sea ; Berbers, Tuaregs, Tibus 
of the Sahara and Mauritania. Semites: Arabs, Abyssinians, 
Syrians, Jews, of South-west Asia, North Africa and Europe. 
Aryans : Hindus, Persians, Afghans, Kurds, Armenians, of India 
and Irania ; Georgians, Circassians, Kabards, Lesghians, Chechenzes 
and others of the Caucasus ; most Europeans. Polynesians : Maori, 
Tongans, Tahitians, Samoans (Fig. 7), Hawaiians, Micronesians. 



CHAPTER III 

THE OCEANIC AEGROES AND NEGRITOS 

The Papuans (p. 29)— The Melanesians (p. 36) — The Australians (p. 43) — The 
Tasmanians (p. 56) — The Andamanese (p. 61) — The Nicobarese (p. 62) — 
The Bankas (p. 63) — The Samangs, Sakais, and Jakuns (p. 64) — The 
Aetas (p. 65) 

AS shown in our General Survey, there are five more or less 
distinct groups — Papuans, Melanesians, Australians, Tas- 
manians, and Negritos — all for long ages, since the subsidence of 
the former Indo-African Continent, separated by the Indian Ocean 
from the kindred Western Negroes. 

The Papuans, 

who lie nearest to the Javanese cradle of mankind, and formerly 
perhaps ranged over most of the Eastern Archipelago, are now 
mainly confined to the great island of New Guinea and some of 
the neighbouring insular groups. Those of Ke, x'\ru (Fig. 9), 
and some other parts are specially distinguished by their so-called 
" mop-heads " of hair, from which the Malays gave them the 
name of Papuwa (frizzly), by which they are best known. This 
feature, of which they are very proud, is carefully attended to, 
a long six-pronged bamboo fork serving as a comb and constantly 
used at spare moments to keep the dense masses from getting 
matted and tangled. Others substitute a large horseshoe-shaped 
comb worn over the forehead and fastened behind with a piece 
of wood which is plated with tin and supports a plume of cock's- 
tail feathers. Peculiar to the men is a band of plaited grass tied 
round the upper arm, to which is attached a bunch of hair or 
bright-coloured feathers. The women often display a necklace 
of teeth or beads which is attached to the earrings and then looped 

29 



30 



The Wofld*s Peoples 



on to the hair-knot behind, producing rather a pretty efifect. 
Anklets of brass or shell and tight-plaited garters below the 
knee help to set off a solitary garb of matted palm-leaves reaching 

from the hips 
to the knees 

(Fig. 9)- 

The Papu- 
ans do not stand 
at the lowest 
level of culture, 
since many raise 
crops, make 
pottery, display 
much skill in 
their wood car- 
V i n g s, build 
strong boats and 
houses either 
perched in the 
branches of 
trees or raised 
on piles along 
the beach (Fig, 
lo). But the 
majority are still 
cannibals, and 
many of the 
wild tribes pre- 
sent a very 
black picture of 
the baser quali- 
ties of primi- 
tive humanity. 
Those of the 
south-west 
coast in Dutch territory are described as treacherous and blood- 
thirsty savages, who murder almost for the sake of murder. But 
even these are far surpassed in fiendish cruelly by the slave- 
raiding Tugares who live farther east about the Dutch and British 
frontiers. They break the arms and legs of their captives to 




Photo by Rev. W. G. Lawes 



FIG. 9. — A NFAV GUINEA YOUTH 
A Mop-Head of full-blood Papuan stock 



The Oceanic Negfoes and Negritos 



31 



prevent them from fighting or escaping, and then keep them as 
fresh meat, cooking one or two at a time as required. Or else 
the captive's palms are pierced, a string passed through the holes, 
and the arms tied together behind. In this state they are 




Phoio by J. W. Lindi, Melbourne 

FIG. 10. — THE chief's HOUSE 
New Guinea Pile Dwellinars 



brought back in the boats to undergo worse tortures at the 
cannibal feasts. On reaching the village they are thrown into 
the water, and fished out by those on the beach sticking barbed 
spears into the fleshy parts. Then they are put on mats, a rope 



32 The "World's Peoples 

secured to a tree is passed round their necks to make them sit up, 
and after much slow torture they are wrapped in dry coconut 
leaves, hoisted some six feet from the ground, and slowly roasted 
with fire-brands. When the rope is burnt and the body falls to the 
ground, the wildest and most savage scene takes place. The 
natives rush with knives in their hands, each slashing a slice from 
the body, which may be still alive, in the midst of diabolical 
shouting and yells of delight {Official Report^ 1895). The Rev. 
J. Chalmers, who witnessed some of these orgies, was himself at 
last seized, killed, and eaten. 

Worthy of these human fiends are their fierce demon-gods, who 
prowl about everywhere, and in some districts take the form of huge 
monsters {Atitigi), with an eye in front and another behind, six 
fingers on each hand, and the right index finger furnished with 
a long sharp nail. They dwell in caves and prey on the people, 
eating them if the flesh is found to their taste. To test the point 
a piece is first scooped out with the long finger nail, and if relished 
the captive is roasted and eaten, otherwise allowed to go free. 
Besides this repulsive form of demonology, ancestor-worship is com- 
mon amongst the Western Papuans. After a burial a block of wood 
called a karwar is fashioned by the village magician to a rude 
efiigy of the departed, with eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, amid much 
feasting and dancing kept up for several days. Meanwhile the soul 
of the deceased is still flitting about, and every effort is now made 
to entice him into the finished image. A tremendous uproar is 
raised with shouting, yelling and drum-beating until the soul enters 
its future abode, from which it can no longer escape and go about 
working mischief The karwar is now put carefully away under the 
best mats in a corner of the hut, where it receives much homage 
and offerings, and is consulted as a sort of oracle on family matters. 
It accompanies travellers on long journeys to guard them from 
harm, but at last loses its efficacy, and is then cast aside as so much 
lumber. 

In British New Guinea witchcraft causes much trouble, and 
everywhere presents the same general features. A wizard, paid 
for the purpose, collects a pack of rubbish containing a hair, the 
nail parings, or anything else taken from the person to be operated 
on. The parcel thus acquires magic powers, and so frightens 
people that they have been known to sicken and die through fear. 
Tabu {tamki, tapu) also, so universal in Oceania, is widespread 



34 



*rhe ^01*1(^*8 Peoples 



in New Guinea, where it retains primitive forms which help to 
reveal its true origin. Here it has no religious significance, but, 
as in New Caledonia, is associated exclusively with the question 
of food — that is, the question which most interested primitive man. 
Leaves, rags, shells, bast, almost anything will do to show that 
such and such sago or coconut trees are held in reserve and 

must not be touched, 
r and in some places 

the prohibition is 
announced by a 
syren of wood on a 
string wielded by a 
fishing-rod. Some- 
times ropes are drawn 
r ou nd gardens; 
branches are tied to 
the door of a house 
that is not to be 
entered, or are laid 
across a track that 
is not to be traversed. 
It is a convenient 
way of warning off 
maraudef s and others 
in the interest of 
the chief or the 
commune, whose 
authority is later re- 
placed by that of the 
local gods, and it is 
then that tabu re- 
ceives religious sanc- 
tion. 

Broadly speaking, 
the moral sense is scarcely yet awakened amongst the Papuan 
peoples, so that there are no ethical codes, no rules of conduct 
beyond the tribal injunctions, no provision made for saints and 
sinners in the after life. Hence in Woodlark Island, at the east 
end of New Guinea, the souls of good and bad alike are wafted 
by the wind to the neighbouring islet of Watum, where they 




FIG. 12. — YOUNG MAN OF SOUTH CAPE, SOUTH 
COAST OF NEW BRITAIN, WITH ARTIFICIALLY 
FORMED HEAD. 



The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 



35 



continue their earthly lives unmolested, the women cultivating 
and cooking food for the men, who hunt, and raid, and fight, 
and enjoy themselves just as in this world. Nor are there any 
social distinctions, since the Papuan is a pure communist, recog- 
nising no chiefs or other superiors except for their personal 
qualities, and obeying no law except that of public opinion. The 
sense of perfect 
equality is well seen 
in their extraordi- 
nary communal 
houses, which are 
all built on piles 
and of immense size, 
from 300 to 500 and 
even 700 feet long, 
large enough in fact 
to accommodate all 
the famihes of the 
tribal group (Fig. 
10). Here no 
social distinctions 
are possible, and all 
associate together 
on absolutely equal 
terms. But they are 
equal, not through 
any sense of per- 
sonal freedom, of 
which they are yet 
unconscious, but be^ 
cause in the com- 
munal life, which ■ 
lies at the base of 

all human society, no account is taken of the individual who enjoys 
no separate rights or privileges. The so-called " dobbos," houses 
built in the branches of high trees, occur only in lawless districts, 
where they afford a refuge from the sudden attacks of hostile 
neighbours. Artificial deformation of the head, which is so general 
in New Britain (Figs. 11, 12, 13), is not practised by the Papuans 
of New Guinea. 




FIG. 13. 



-PROFILE OF THE SAME PERSON 
Melanesian Type 



36 The "Woi-ld^s Peoples 

In their boisterous and fitful temperament the Papuans are true 
Negroes, as is well shown in the classical passage in which Dr. A. R. 
Wallace compares the Papuans with their Malay neighbours after 
a close study of both at first hand. " Whether we consider their 
physical conformation, their moral characteristics, or their intellectual 
capacities, the Malay and Papuan races offer remarkable differences 
and striking contrasts. The Malay is of short stature, brown- 
skinned, straight-haired, beardless, and smooth-bodied. The 
Papuan is taller, is black-skinned, frizzly-haired, bearded, and 
hairy-bodied. The former is broad-faced, has a small nose and 
flat eyebrows ; the latter is long-faced, has a large and prominent 
nose, and projecting eyebrows. The Malay is bashful, cold, un- 
demonstrative, and quiet ; the Papuan is bold, impetuous, excitable, 
and noisy. The former is grave and seldom laughs; the latter is 
joyous and laughter-loving ; the one conceals his emotions, the 
other displays them." 

The Melanesians 

No such contrasts could be drawn between the Papuans and 
their Melanesian cousins, whose present domain stretches from 
the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, Duke of 
York) south-eastwards to New Caledonia and eastwards to Fiji 
and Rotuma (Fig. ii). There is strong presumption that they 
formerly ranged over all the South Sea Islands, where a dark 
strain is almost everywhere noticeable amongst their present 
Polynesian inhabitants. On the other hand the Melanesian territory 
has in later times been encroached upon at various points by the 
Polynesians, so that both the physical and mental characters have 
in some places undergone considerable modifications which have 
led some observers to suppose that the Papuans and Melanesians 
belong to two different stocks. But a careful survey of the whole 
insular field shows clearly that the Papuan element greatly pre- 
dominates (Fig. 14). Thus the Admiralty and the Solomon 
Islanders, who may be taken as typical Melanesians, differ little 
from the average Papuan except in the nose, which is smaller 
and without the characteristic tip at the end, and in the height, 
which is lower, seldom exceeding 5 ft. 4 in. The natives them- 
selves recognise no kinship with others, being indigenous and 
sprung from the soil, or rather from a sugar-cane, two knots of 



38 The World's Peoples 

which began to shoot, one giving birth to a man the other to a 
woman, the parents of mankind. Socially there is little to choose 
between the two sections, who may be collectively called Papuasians, 
and are both alike, for the most part, treacherous bloodthirsty 
head-hunters and cannibals. Thanks to missionary work, some 
little improvement has been noticed amongst the New Hebrides 
natives ; but even the very latest observers still continue to speak 
in unmeasured terms of the villainous character of the Solomon 
Islanders, " by nature lying, treacherous, thievish, and cruel cannibals " 
(Carl Ribbe). Yet in some respects the Melanesians show a 
marked superiority over the Papuans, and they certainly stand on 
a much higher mental plane, which may safely be attributed to the 
Polynesians long settled amongst them. This is seen in their 
more developed social and political institutions, the existence of 
chiefs, the restrictions imposed on the sexual relations, and above 
all their religious notions, which are far beyond the crude 
demonolatry of the New Guinea people. Indeed we are told by 
Mr. Codrington that there is no devil-worship, although the English 
word devil is common enough, being adopted by the natives in 
ignorance of its meaning. A distinction is clearly drawn between 
two classes of spirits, the bodiless and the disembodied — that is, pure 
spirits that never were mortals (animism) and the ghosts of the' 
departed (ancestor-worship). But the most essential feature of 
this system is a subtle power or virtue called 7na?ia, which was 
obviously borrowed from the Polynesians, and which confers special 
faculties on the persons and objects — men, houses, boats, weapons 
— possessed of it. In general, all pure spirits, most ghosts, and 
some men have mana, and after death those souls alone are 
worshipped who are supposed to have acquired it in life. These 
are of course the chiefs and others of high rank, while the common 
folk having no mana in this have none in the next world, and 
so are neglected and soon forgotten. All howe'^r are admitted 
to Hades where they lead a happy if an empty life, free at least 
from sorrow and earthly cares. It is reached, like Avernus, through 
a crater near a lake, where ghosts assemble, and where the new- 
comers are received by Ngalevu, the ghostly ruler of the place. 
On the far side of the lake, whither no man is known to have 
come, clouds of steam rise through another cleft, a proof that 
Ngalevu has heard the cries of the shades who have climbed an 
overhanging tree and called aloud for admittance. In shade-land 



40 



The Wofld*s Peoples 



are trees and houses where dwell the dead, though they may 
still visit the glimpses of the moon, and are seen like fire at night 
right in the path of the wayfarer who fears to go farther into the 
gloomy woods. 

Amongst the social institutions a great part is played by the 
secret societies, which are widespread and celebrate occult rites, 

from which, as 
amongst the 
European free- 
masons, women 
and the unini- 
tiated are ex- 
eluded. The 
members are 
disguised by 
masks and an 
enveloping garb 
when abroad in 
the daylight, and 
have strange 
cries and secret 
signs by which 
their presence 
may be known 
when unseen. 
Such societies 
are the Dukduk 
of New Britain, 
the Matambala 
of Florida, the 
T a m a t e of 
Banks' Islands, 
the Qatu of the 
New Hebrides, 

and others of Fiji and New Caledonia. In all of them the 
ghosts of the dead are supposed to be present and consulted 
by certain prescribed methods. Besides the great lodges, which 
are very powerful in enforcing the chiefs' edicts and their own 
decrees, there are numerous minor societies which may be started 
by anybody, some being cheap and of easy entrance, others 




Photo by permission of Sir C. A. G. Bridge 

FIG. l6. — NATIVES OF UGI, SOLOMON ISLANDS 
Full-blood Melanesians 



42 The ^01*1(1*8 Peoples 

more select with heavy entrance fees. The initiation to some 
of the higher bodies is quite an ordeal, the neophytes being 
subjected to severe trials of endurance by torture, hunger, and 
other hardships continued for many weeks, during which they are 
taught to sing and dance. The dances, which always form part 
of the mysteries, are really wonderful performances, and usually 
take place by moonlight in an open space encircled by spectators. 
Amid loud reports produced by the bursting of bladders in the 
surrounding woods the dancers enter upon the ground one after 
the other with a surprisingly rapid stamping movement of the feet, 
and come to an equally surprising sudden halt. The leader carries 
a long-shaped bamboo drum answering to the baton of our 
conductors, while the rest bring their bows and arrows. All move 
in concert, and when they are numerous and expert, the very 
ground seems to shake beneath their feet. Various rich dancing 
costumes are worn (Fig. 17), and a favourite ornament is a huge 
ear-plug which sometimes distends the lobe down to the shoulders, 
as in the New Hebrides, Fiji, and many other places. 

The same sense of rhythm and harmony is shown in their 
songs, which are accompanied by the music Qf drums, pipes, 
stringed instruments, bull-roarers, and rattles. These songs are 
transmitted orally from age to age, as are also their numerous 
myths, legends and popular traditions, animal stories and wonder 
tales. In all this the Melanesians greatly excel the Papuans, 
as they do also in the products of the industrial arts, canoes, 
outriggers, weapons, fishing gear, houses, forts, stone buildings, 
and the decorative arts generally. The war canoes, which take a 
long time to build, are forty-five to sixty feet long by six wide, stem 
and stern being turned up to a height of fifteen feet and finished off 
with elaborately carved figure-heads (Fig. 15). In order togetmana, 
a human victim is required on the first voyage, and if none turn 
up the captain arranges privately with some neighbourly chief to 
let him have one of his men, some friendless person or a stranger, 
who is then suddenly pounced upon and brained while looking 
at the new canoe. Victims are also often buried alive under 
the foundations of new houses, some of which are very fine 
structures. The dwellings of chiefs are often noble buildings thirty 
or forty feet long by thirty high with interlaced bamboo floors 
raised well above the ground, sunken hearth, and a number of 
*' cubicles " ranged along the walls for the owner's wives. Such 



The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 43 

a house has to be " consecrated " with the head of a man, or at 
least of a woman or bo}', and it was formerly customary to crush 
one or more men under the base of the main pillar or post. The 
fittings include a chest on legs for storing dried bread-fruit, a 
hole and pile of stones for an oven ; wooden hooks hanging from 
the roof with bags of food to protect them from the rats, large 
wooden platters, bowls, pestles, bamboos for water, wicker dishes, 
a few wooden knives and tools stuck between the layers of sago 
or coconut palm thatch, and mats spread upon the floor. In some 
places the wooden bowls, noted for their great size, fantastic shape, 
and fine ornamentation, serve as pots set upon the pile of stones 
heated in the oven. 

Narcotics, such as the areca-nut chewed with betel-leaf and 
coral-lime, are common ; but there are no indigenous intoxicants, 
and even the Polynesian kava is confined to the Banks' Islands 
and New Hebrides. In Aurora the root is pounded with a rough 
coral pestle and mortar ; but elsewhere the preparation is more 
elaborate. It is first chewed by the drinker, and when the fibres 
are separated a mouthful of water stimulates the secretion of saliva. 
Then some more water is added in the coconut shell cup, over 
which the fibres are well squeezed, and the potion is ready. 
This seems repulsive enough, but it is worse in Polynesia, where 
the mastication is done not by the drinker himself, but by girls 
engaged for the purpose. 

The Australians and Tasmanians 

Despite a general physical and mental likeness, most observers 
now recognise two original elements — a black and perhaps a low 
Caucasic — in the constitution of the Australian aborigines. That the 
black forms the substratum is also generally admitted, and is indeed 
self-evident, the colour being often almost quite black, while the 
features and bony framework are distinctly negroid. Those of the 
Adelaide River in the north-west, who may be taken as typical 
natives, are described as nearly pitch-black, with very long head 
(index 70 to 71), projecting jaws, deep-set black eyes, depressed 
nose, wide nostrils, thick lips and no calves (Fig. 18), while infants, 
as elsewhere in Negroland, are born a light yellow or brown, and 
remain so for about two years. The distinguishing trait is the black 
hair, which is neither woolly nor frizzly, but rather shaggy and even 



44 



The World's Peoples 



straight, and, like the well-developed beard, of coarse texture. This 
hirsuteness (Fig. 23) is doubtless due to an early infusion of the 
Caucasic element, which is also pointed at by some skulls presenting 
Neanderthal characters found in districts which could be easily 
reached from Malaysia by the Javanese Pleistocene man at a time 

when Australia still 
formed nearly con- 
tinuous land with the 
Asiatic continent. 

After the subsi- 
dence of the land- 
connections the na- 
tives remained for 
long ages cut off 
from the rest of the 
world, visited only 
now and then by a 
stray junk or prau till 
quite recent times. 
They had thus ample 
leisure in their iso- 
lated seclusion to 
live their own life, 
and to develop those 
marked mental and 
moral characters by 
which they are dis- 
tinguished from all 
other races. But 
their environment 
was unfavourable, 
mostly arid waterless 
wastes, bush or scrub 
in the central and 
western parts, good grassy and well-wooded tracts only in the 
east. And as primitive man necessarily reflects his surround- 
ings, no further explanation is needed of the very low stage of 
culture at which the Australian aborigines have always remained. 
The stimulants and influences from without came too late — first 
British settlements towards the close of the eighteenth century — 




Photo by J.W. Lindt, Melbourne 



FIG. l! 



: — MAN OF THE " ARILLDA " WALLINUMAH 
TRIBE, GILBERT RIVER, AUSTRALIA 



The Oceanic NegfoeS and Negritos 



45 



and they Were too strong to be effective except for the further 
degradation and practical extinction of these untutored savages. 
They were never very numerous, not more than about 150,000 
at the discovery, and according to the 1901 census all have 
disappeared except about 22,000 full-blood and half-breeds, some 
gathered into re- 
serves but the ma- 
jority still in the wild 
state. 

This wild state 
stands at nearly the 
lowest level of human 
culture, if the term 
culture can be at all 
applied to a people 
who build no houses, 
not even mud huts, 
but only screens of 
foliage shifted with 
the shifting winds ; 
who till no land, 
raise no crops, but 
are omnivorous 
feeders on roots and 
fruits, vermin even 
such as beetles, 
grasshoppers, and 
termites, besides 
small and big game, 
man included ; make 
no boats, or dug-outs 
beyond the framed 
bark of their euca- 
lyptus trees ; wear no clothes or even personal ornaments except 
perhaps a bone thrust through the nasal septum, or a rude shell 
necklace (Fig. 18) and the rough weltings raised on the skin 
by their barbarous tattooing processes (Fig. 22); have no names for 
the numerals beyond two or three, hence no letters, science, or 
arts, and, some good observers add, no religion. 

But religion is a burning question, on which ^opinions vary from 




Photo by J. W. lAndt, Melbourne 
FIG. 19.— AUSTRALIAN YOUTH, GILBERT RIVER 



46 The WofId*s Peoples 

absolute denial of its existence to crediting them with a beh'ef in 
the " All-Father." The most general impression is that they have 
no prayer, or sacrifices, or religious observances of any kind, acknow- 
ledging no Supreme Being, worshipping no idols, and believing only 
in wicked spirits, authors of all evil and dangerous especially at night. 
Hence they seldom venture from the encampment after dusk without 
carrying a firestick to scare away these malignant beings. Yet some 
are said to hold that all men and animals have a soul which can 
pass into other bodies, leave a person even in his lifetime, visit 
the grave of its former possessor, eat scraps of food lying about 
the camp, and warm itself by the night fires. In the native folklore 
a prominent figure is Bunjil, creator of most things. Armed with 
a large knife, he makes the earth and then goes about cutting and 
slashing it into rivers and creeks, hills and valleys. Then, after 
contact with the whites, there is a curious adaptation of Bunjil to 
Biblical legends, as when people grow wicked he waxes angry, raises 
storms and fierce winds which shake the big trees on the hilltops. 
Thereupon he again goes about with his big knife, cutting this way 
and that way, and men, women and children are all cut into very 
little pieces. But the pieces are alive and wriggle about like worms, 
when great storms spring up, and they are blown about like snow- 
flakes. They are wafted into the clouds, and by the clouds borne 
hither and thither all over the earth, and thus is mankind dis- 
persed ; but the good people are carried aloft and become stars, 
which still shine in the sky. The above-mentioned tribal All- 
Father holds sway in Victoria and New South Wales, and a 
native " Trinity " is even spoken of comprising Boyma, a benevo- 
lent omnipotent Being, his all-knowing son Grogoragally, mediator 
between Boyma and mortals, and a third person half human, half 
divine, the great lawgiver Moogeegally, and lastly a hell with 
everlasting fire, and a heaven where the blessed dance and amuse 
themselves. 

Amongst the Arunta and some other tribes of Central Australia 
the totemic system has acquired strange developments, totems 
being even assigned to the mysterious Irttntarinia entities, vague 
and invisible incarnations of the ancestral ghosts who lived in the 
Alcheringa time, the dim remote past, the beginning of everything. 
They are far more powerful than living men, because their spirit 
part is associated with the so-called Churinga, stocks or stones or 
any other object endowed with the Arungquiltha, the Australian 



The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 47 

mana, which makes the yams and grass to grow, enables a man 
to capture game, and so on. 

The Churinga, being the outward sign, if not the embodiment 
of the ancestral souls, are naturally held in the highest esteem by 
tribes whose very existence depends on their success in the chase. 
They are rightly regarded as the typical hunters, in this respect 
unsurpassed even by the Canadian trappers, the African Bushmen, 
or any other people, savage or civilised. Hence in the wild state, 
the Australian is the most independent of mortals, but at the same 
time is prevented from making any progress in civilisation beyond a 
certain low level. The difficulty of capturing game with his primi- 
tive methods compels him to give his whole time to the quest of 
food, and spend his days in roaming restlessly over wide hunting- 
grounds, and devising all sorts of artificial methods and precautions 
for preventing these preserves from becoming over-peopled. This 
is the explanation of certain indescribable puberty rites, as well 
as of the strange marital relations, which are so arbitrary and 
intricate that they remain quite incomprehensible except to experts 
who have devoted years to their study. Even these are not agreed 
on all points, and while all admit the complicated class marriages 
within the several groups, the still more primitive " Communal 
Marriages," practically mere promiscuity, are strenuously denied 
by many close observers. In fact the class system, prevalent 
both in exogamous and endogamous tribes, necessarily excludes 
promiscuity, which, as shown convincingly by Mr. Curr, neither 
did nor does exist in any part of Australia. What is certain is 
the brutal treatment to which the bride is often subjected, A 
man having a daughter thirteen or fourteen years old, offers her to some 
elderly person "for a consideration," and when the bargain is 
struck, she is brought out and handed over to a man whom she 
may have never seen but to loathe. The father carries a spear, 
a waddy or a tomahawk, which he freely uses in case of resistance. 
If she still rebels and screams, the blows are repeated, and if 
she attempts to run away, a stroke on the head from the waddy 
or tomahawk quiets her. The mother screams and scolds and 
beats the ground with her digging-stick ; the dogs bark and whine, 
but nothing interrupts the father, who to enforce his authority 
will seize the bride by her long hair and drag her to her new home. 
Here further resistance is followed by further brutal treatment, 
under which her bridal screams and yells make the night hideous. 



48 ThelWofld^s Peoples 

Besides the arms here mentioned, the most characteristic 
weapon is the boomerang, of which there are two kinds. One 
is a mere throwing-stick used in tribal warfare : but the other, 
certainly a native invention unknown elsewhere, is somewhat 
sickle-shaped, about three feet long, two inches wide and nearly 
one inch thick. When grasped at one end and projected upward 
at an angle of about 45° it rotates to a great height, and then 
suddenly returns to the thrower. It may also be thrown downward 
to the ground, when it rebounds in a straight line, pursuing a 
ricochet motion till it strikes the object aimed at. This is not 
used in battle, but is treated merely as a plaything, or for killing 
fish, as in the north-western Broome district, where the natives 
have neither boats nor even fishing tackle (Dr. Klaatsch). There 
are, however, shields of divers patterns, and some simple useful 
implements, such as the saddle-back quern, used with a roller stone 
for grinding nardoo seeds, and carried about on the backs of the 
women. The shell fish-hooks, too, are of ingenious and complicated 
design, and G. Scott Lang describes a remarkable fish-trap in 
the Brewarina district forming an immense labyrinth of large stone 
walls which " have stood every flood from time immemorial." 
Scanty or doubtful references are further made to a North Queens- 
land dug-out and canoes fifty feet long, more hkely captured or 
stranded from New Guinea than of native build, and even to 
traces of permanent huts and the cultivation of yams in the 
Hutt River district. But the vague or rare mention of such 
"proofs" of social progress rather tends to confirm the low estimate 
of Australian culture held by the best observers. 

Nevertheless the mental faculties and even the moral qualities 
are in some respects of a higher order than is generally supposed. 
As amongst the true Negroes, the school children in the reservations 
show as much or even greater aptitude for learning than those of 
white parents, although we are not told that this early promise yields 
much fruit in the adult. The moral character is well summed up 
by Brough Smyth, who describes the native as cruel to his foes 
and kind to his friends ; he will look upon infanticide without 
repugnance, and even feed a child on its murdered brother in the 
belief that it will thereby acquire the strength of both ; yet he will 
show affection for those who are permitted to live ; he will half 
murder a girl in order to possess her as a wife, but protect and 
love her when she resigns herself to his will. He is a murderer 



The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 49 

when his tribe requires a murder to be done, but in a fight is 
generous and takes no unfair advantage. He is affectionate towards 
his relatives and respectful and dutiful in his behaviour to the aged. 
Cases are on record of wives refusing to survive their husbands and 
conversely, and even of men sickening to death on the loss of a 
friend. Their soci- 
able disposition is -^.'-r-rrr!^ 
well shown at the 
festive gatherings, 
where all take part 
in the corroboree, as 
the characteristic 
Australian dance is 
called (Fig. 21), 
There are two kinds, 
one, like our " carpet 
dances," got up on 
the spur of the mo- 
ment without much 
order or formality. 
But the other is a 
very serious affair, 
requiring much pre- 
paration and a great 
variety of costumes, 
and is often kept up 
for three consecutive 
nights. It is a weird 
spectacle, diversified 
by several different 
styles in some re- 
spects resembHng the 
performances of the 

Melanesian secret societies. There is much advancing and re- 
treating, the dancers waving spears or other missiles, or else their 
wands with many-coloured spiral markings, and keeping such perfect 
time as to produce only one simultaneous loud impact of the 
feet on the ground. This is the Arunta style as described by 
Dr. Stirling. 

Formerly the Bengel and other tribes of New South Wales 

4 




FIG. 20. — AUSTRALIAN OF PORT DARWIN 



5° The "Wofld*s Peoples 

held similar gatherings in connection with one of their puberty 
rites which consisted in piercing the nasal septum for the insertion 
of a bit of wood or bone, and at the same time knocking out 
a tooth. With the loss of a tooth the young men entered the 
ranks of the adults, and were henceforth privileged to take part in 
their wars and kangaroo hunts. In the year 1795 Collins witnessed 
such a ceremony from the summit of Farm Cove. On his arrival 
he found the chief actors, who were members of the Kemmirai 
tribe, grouped in full array at one end of a clearing in the bush, 
and at the other the young men who were to lose their teeth. 
The ceremony opens with the warriors advancing singing, yelling, 
hurling their spears at the targets, and raising clouds of dust 
with their caperings. Then the youths are seized one after the 
other and brought to the other side, where they remain seated 
with crossed legs, clasped hands, and downcast look. In this 
extremely uncomfortable position they remain the whole night, 
never stirring, raising their eyes, nor tasting a morsel of food till 
the operation is over. 

Now the wizards perform some mysterious rites, one of them 
suddenly throwing himself flat on the ground, rolling over and over 
with wonderful twistings and contortions, shamming frightful 
convulsions, and then seeming to draw out a bone from himself 
to serve for the next performance. And all the time the others 
keep dancing round about, and patting him on the back till the 
magic bone is extracted, whereupon he seems relieved from his 
pretended sufferings. 

Scarcely has one risen from the ground, bathed in perspiration 
and thoroughly exhausted, when a second goes through the same 
farce and also produces a bone. All this is to convince the youths 
that the pending operation would only cause them little pain, 
since they would have the less to endure the more the wizards 
suffered. 

Soon after dawn the next day the actors advance in Indian 
file, raising a great uproar and running three times round the 
clearing. Then the youths, with bent knees and clasped hands, 
are brought forward, and now a series of ceremonies are gone 
through, each representing something particular, but one and all 
strange and grotesque. In one scene the lads are seated at the 
upper end of the clearing, while the actors run on all fours 
several times round the place, imitating the attitude of the dingo. 



52 The "World's Peoples 

their boomerangs being stuck behind in their girdles, so as to 
stand out like dogs' tails. This canine display is presumably 
intended to hand over the control of these animals to the youths. 
Another scene shows them still seated, while a powerful native 
advances with the straw effigy of a kangaroo on his shoulder, and 
another behind him with a bunch of foliage on his shoulder, the 
two seeming to break down under their burdens, staggering along 
till they reach the young men, at whose feet they lay their prey, 
the kangaroo indicating the permission henceforth to hunt this 
animal. In the third scene the actors stick a bunch of herbage 
in their girdles and set off Hke a herd of kangaroos, now springing 
on their hind legs, now standing erect, now scratching with their 
claws, while a man keeps banging a shield with a club, and two 
others follow, trying to overtake, spear, and kill the game, as in 
a real hunt. Then each of the actors seizes a boy, mounts him 
on his shoulders, and carries him off to the place where the last 
scene of the comedy is to be acted. The first lad to be operated 
upon is lifted on to the shoulders of a man kneeling on the ground 
and is shown one of the bones, which is sharply pointed at one 
end in order to cut through the gum ; were this not done the 
blow might easily break his jaw. Then a kind of chisel is applied 
to the tooth, which being now loosened yields to a strong well- 
planted blow. All the young men, fifteen in number, were treated 
in the same way, and during the whole performance the on-lookers 
kept shouting at the top of their voices, either to distract the boys 
or else to drown their shrieks of pain. 

As is pointed out by Frobenius, nearly all these tooth-drawings, 
scarifyings, ear-piercings and general mutilations have a deep religious 
significance for primitive man. On Babar, one of the Lesser 
Sunda Islands, the distention of the ear-lobes is connected with 
the notion that access to deadland after death is allowed to those 
only who during life had taken care to have their ear-holes properly 
enlarged. Some Australian tribes think that those are tortured 
hereafter who do not have the walls of the nostrils bored for 
the insertion of a bone, a bit of stick, or the like. Amongst the 
Motu, a tribe in British New Guinea, there are, strictly speaking, 
no punishments after death. Nevertheless in the popular belief there 
is one painful experience for the souls of those careless people 
whose nose is not pierced, and who consequently go to a wretched 
place where food is scarce and there are no betel-nuts. According 



The Oceanic Negfoes and Negritos 



53 



to the beUef of the natives of Maevo, an island in the New Hebrides 
Archipelago, all those whose ears are not distended to a sufficient 
size must drink no water, while all who are not tattooed will get 
no proper food to eat. 

For the souls of the natives of Florida Island, after death a 
wandering journey begins, in the course of which they meet a certain 
tindalo (spirit) on the shores of an island where dwell the departed 




PJioto by yir. Richard Phillips 

FIG. 22. — AUSTRALIANS OF THE NORMANBY TRIBE 



souls. He examines the nose, and if it is found pierced, they 
are easily admitted to the kingdom of the blest, but if not, for them 
begins a period of sorrow and suffering. On Mota, one of the 
Banks' Islands, those fare worse still whose ears are not found 
bored by Paget, judge of the dead ; and in the Gilbert Archipelago 
the tattooed alone are allowed to enter the abode of bliss. In 
the Hades of the Fijians all whose ears are not enlarged are treated 
with the utmost contempt, and women who are not tattooed are 
immolated by the souls of their own sex, and served up as food 
for the gods. It all means that the goodness and virtue of a 



54 The World's Peoples 

person consist entirely in his strict observance of the tribal customs 
and traditions. 

In Mrs. Jeannie Gunn's The Little Black Princess, a charming 
picture of Australian inner life and thought, we see what a firm hold 
witchcraft and the magic arts still have even on the natives that have 
long been in close contact with Europeans. Here Goggle Eye, one 
of the chief characters, has been cursed by the magicians of his 
tribe. They bewitched him by " singing magic " and pointing death- 
bones at him, so that he is sure to die. So firm is their faith in 
the efficacy of the process, that many do actually pine away and 
die when they learn that they have been cursed, and this is the 
fate of Goggle Eye himself, who goes off" to attend some of the 
tribal ceremonies, is operated upon by an enemy, and returns to his 
European home in a dying state. This is how it is done. The 
enemy secretly sticks a sharp-pointed bone in the ground, bends over 
it, and "sings magic into it." When enough magic is sung, the 
bone, now charged with a deadly virtue, is brought to the camp and 
secretly pointed at the unsuspecting victim. Everything must be 
done in this secret way, for if the man's friends find out who has 
done the bone-pointing, they will go and do the same to him in 
revenge. On the other hand the victim must somehow be informed 
of the fact, else he will not get a fright and die. One way of letting 
him know is to put the bone in some place where he is sure to find 
it. This dying from bone-pointing is after all merely faith-dying, 
the reverse process of our Christian Scientists' ''faith-healing." 

To Mrs. K. Langlow Parker, another English lady who has 
lived for years amongst the natives and learned to sympathise with 
them, we are indebted for some fresh information at first hand on 
their views regarding the soul, or rather the souls, for each person 
has three and some even four. Such, she tells us, is the doctrine 
of the New South Wales Euahlayi tribe, who hold that besides the 
Yowee, which never leaves the body till death, there are at least two 
others, the Doowee, which wanders in dreams, may be captured, 
knocked on the head or otherwise ill-used with bad results to its 
owner, and the Mulloowil or shadow soul, the loss of which is also 
hurtful. These three are common property, while Yunbeai, the 
fourth, which is the animal soul or personal totem, is reserved for 
the great magicians and those to whom they may give it. In the 
magic rites performed for the purpose of detecting murderers this 
animal soul sometimes plays an important part. The neighbourhood 




Photo by permission of Mr. John Bagot 

FIG. 23. — AUSTRALIANS FROM RIVER MURRAY 
The Caucasic element is seen in the full beard and more regular features 



56 The "Wofld*s Peoples 

of the victim's grave is carefully searched for the spoor of an animal, and 
this spoor is always found to be that of the totem of the criminal, who 
is thus known, like the European were-wolf, to have taken the form 
of his totem animal for this and perhaps for other wicked purposes. 
The Australian totemic system, the origin and nature of which are 
the subject of such heated discussion amongst students of primitive 
institutions, is thus seen to be largely if not altogether animistic. 
Each person inherits some animal totem, which was at first merely 
a badge or token to distinguish persons or small groups one from 
another, and in course of time the association becomes so close 
that the totem and its bearer become one. They are now insepar- 
able, and the connection in due course acquires tribal or social and 
eventually religious sanction. In Australia religion itself is so little 
developed that this final stage has scarcely yet been reached, and 
the system remains a social institution. But elsewhere, and especially 
in North America, it has assumed such a pronounced religious 
character that its true origin — a simple heraldic device introduced 
for a practical purpose — is obscured and forgotten. It should be 
remembered that all such later developments take place normally 
and have their roots in the wants and needs of primitive societies, 
as we see, for instance, in the Pontifex Maximus, the " Chief Bridge- 
builder," now the title of the head of the Roman Church. It is 
noteworthy that the main object of Australian totemism is to fix 
and determine the consanguineous and kinship groups and thus 
regulate the marital relations. It is a distinguishing family mark 
just as tabu is a question of food (see above). 

If the Australian aborigines may be taken as representing a 
somewhat low phase of the New Stone Age, their distant Tasmanian 
cousins may be said to have scarcely reached the lowest phase of 
the Old Stone Age, when they became extinct about twenty years 
ago. There is some doubt as to the precise date, but Mr. James 
Barnard assures us that one full-blood Tasmanian, Fanny Cochrane 
Smith, was still living at Port Cygnet in 1889, although Mr. H. 
Ling Roth, perhaps a better authority, declares that she was only 
a half-breed. Opinions differ as to their origin, and while some 
regard them as perhaps aberrant Melanesians modified, not by 
crossings but by long isolation in their insular home, others look 
upon them as primitive Australians modified both by isolation and 
by Melanesian interminglings. The divergence from both is shown 
especially in the width of the skull in the parietal region, the form 




Photo Copyright by J. W. Beailie, Hobart 

FIG. 24. — A GROUP OF TASMANIANS 
Reclaimed from the wild state, as shown by their European dress. All now extinct 



58 The World*s Peoples 

of the nose, the projection of the mouth, the size of the teeth, 
and the character of the hair, somewhat intermediate between the 
Papuan mop-head and the shaggy Austrahan (Fig. 24). On their 
extremely low cultural status all are agreed. Their rude stone 
implements have been compared with the British eoliths (older than 
the palaeoliths) and with the specimens from Portugal claiming to 
be of Pliocene if not of Miocene (Middle Tertiary) origin. None 
are ground or polished, or detached from the core by pressure, but 
only by blows in the simplest way ; nor were they mounted on hefts, 
but only grasped in the hand, like all true eoliths. Thus the 
Tasmanians would appear to have rema:ined to our day living 
representatives of the earliest Stone Age, left behind in cultural 
development even by the ancient tribes of the Somme and the 
Thames. " The life of these savages proves to be of undeveloped 
type alike in arts and institutions, so much so that the distinction of 
being the lowest of normal. tribes may be claimed for them" (E. B. 
Tylor). Even their speech, distinct from all other tongues in its 
vocabulary and structure, was of a rudimentary character. In the 
absence of sibilants and in some other features it showed some 
resemblance to the Australian, but was of a much ruder type, and 
so imperfectly constituted that there was no settled order or arrange- 
ment of words in the sentence, the sense being eked out by tone, 
manner, and gesture, so that they could scarcely converse in the 
dark, and all intercourse had to cease with nightfall. Abstract terms 
scarcely existed, and while every gum-tree or wattle-tree had its 
name, there was no word for " tree " in general, or for qualities 
such as hard, soft, hot, cold, etc. Anything hard was " like a 
stone," round " like the moon," and so on, the speaker suiting the 
action to the word, and supplementing the meaning to be under- 
stood by some gesture. 

Though there were fire-sticks it is doubtful whether they could 
kindle fire by friction or otherwise. But they remembered a time 
when there was no fire at all, until two blackfellows standing on 
a hilltop threw it about like stars. At first the people were 
frightened and ran away, but came back in time and made a fire 
of wood, after which " no more was fire lost in our land. The 
two blackfellows are in the clouds, in the clear night you see 
them like stars. These are they who brought fire to our fathers " 
{Tasmanian Folklore). There were no boomerangs, or thro wing- 
sticks, or shields, nothing but two primitive spears and the waddy, 



The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 59 

something like the Irish shillelagh. In their diet were included 
snakes, lizards, grubs and worms, also birds, fishes, roots, seeds, 
fruits, besides the opossum, wombat, and kangaroo, but not man 
as a rule. They were gross feeders, eating enormous quantities of 
food when they could get it, and the case is mentioned of a woman 
who devoured fifty to sixty eggs larger than a duck's besides a 
double ration of bread at the station in Flinders Island. They 
had frail bark canoes and rafts like those of Torres Strait, but no 
dwellings beyond caves, rock-shelters, and branches of trees lashed 
together, supported by stakes and disposed crescent-shape with the 
concave side to wnndward. Usually the men went naked, the 
women wore a loose covering of skins, and ornaments were limited 
to a shell necklace, cosmetics of red ochre, plumbago, and powdered 
charcoal. 

The Oceanic Negritos 

Although the Spanish diminutive Negrito with its variant 
Negrillo, meaning " Little Negro," is by established usage applied 
in a collective way to certain undersized groups dispersed amongst 
the taller Malayan peoples of the Eastern Archipelago, the term 
is not to be taken in too strict a sense, since only a very few of 
these groups can properly be called pygmies, while all are of dis- 
tinctly higher stature thati the African Negritos, all of whom are 
true pygmies. The African falls normally well below 4 ft. 6 in., 
whereas the Oceanic often reaches 5 ft., and perhaps averages 
4 ft. 8 in. Another marked difference lies in the colour of the 
skin, which- is always black in the east, always brown or yellowish- 
brown in the west. In other respects both present much the same 
Negro or Negroid characters such as short or round heads with 
cephalic index sometimes above 90, projecting jaws, a slightly 
tottering gait, and especially short black and woolly hair of tufty 
growth, this being a constant trait by which the true Negrito can 
always be recognised. 

Although no longer found in the great islands of Sumatra and 
Borneo, or in any of the lesser Sundas, their undoubted presence 
in Java, the An damans, Banka Island, the Malay Peninsula, the 
Philippines, and New Guinea plainly shows that the Oceanic 
Negritos must have formerly ranged over the whole of Malaysia, 
and there are indications that perhaps the greater part of India was 



6o 



The World's Peoples 



once included in their domain. But at present, and perhaps through- 
out historic times, they are mainly restricted to five isolated areas : 
the Andaman Islands, of which the " Mincopies," as they were 
formerly called, hold exclusive possession; the Malay Peninsula, where 
the Samangs, Sakais, Jakuns, and several other full-blood and half- 



\ 




Photo by Colonel Waterhouse 

FIG. 25. — A GROUP OF ANDAMANESE 
Are the tallest of all the Oceanic Negritos 

caste groups live either aloof from or intermingled with the sur- 
rounding Malay populations ; the island of Java, where the formerly 
widespread Kalangs are now nearly if not quite extinct ; the Aetas, 
dispersed in small bodies over the Philippine Archipelago, where 
they are either dying out or becoming absorbed in the Tagala and 



The Oceanic Negfoes and Megt-itos 6i 

other Malayan communities ; lastly the little-known Karons of the 
Arfak Hills, North-west New Guinea. 

A special interest attaches to the Andamanese Islanders from 
the fact that since the extinction of the Tasmanians they are almost 
the only group of aborigines who, until the recent British occupation, 
have lived quite apart from the rest of the world in their remote 
insular homes since the early Stone Ages. Hence it is not perhaps 
surprising that when questioned by their first visitors as to their 
ideas regarding the universe they replied that their islands comprised 
the whole world, and that the visitors themselves were their deceased 
forefathers who were allowed now and then to revisit the erenia — that 
is, the world, the Andaman Islands. Hence also the natives of India 
who now come regularly as convicts or sepoys are still always called 
chaugala, i.e. " Departed Spirits." Of this world itself they have the 
strangest possible notion, supposing it to be flat as a plate and badly 
balanced on the top of a very tall tree, so that it is doomed one 
day to be tilted over -by a great earthquake. Then the living and 
the dead will change places, and the latter, to expedite matters, 
combine from time to time to shake the tree and so displace the 
wicker ladder by which it is connected with heaven. Here dwells 
Puluga, an immortal invisible being who knows everything, even 
men's thoughts, in the daylight but not in the dark, and has made 
all things except three or four bad spirits for whose misdeeds he is 
not responsible. There is a curious notion about wax-burning, which, 
being distasteful to Puluga, is often secretly done when some enemy 
is fishing or hunting in order to stir up his wrath and thus spoil the 
sport. Hence in the criminal code before lying, theft, or murder 
comes wax-burning, the greatest crime of all, equivalent to our 
sacrilege. 

Many wild statements formerly current about these harmless 
aborigines have been dispelled, and we now know that they do not 
burrow in the ground like rabbits, that there are no " oven-trees " for 
roasting pigs or men, no cannibalism, boomerangs, or even blow- 
pipes, useless without poison, of which they have no knowledge. 
They have, however, two kinds of boats, one a very rude outrigger, 
and two kinds of dwellings, also very frail and primitive, like the 
leafy shelters of the Amazonian Amerinds. 

The Andamanese are the tallest of all Negritos (average about 
4 ft. 9 or lo in.) and are of a somewhat infantile type, with greatly 
modified Negro features, due perhaps to the softening influence 



62 



The W"orld*s Peoples 



of their oceanic climate -.(Fig. 25). They are described as a merry, 
talkative, somewhat petulant, inquisitive, and restless people, and 
a pleasing trait is the treatment of their wives, who, though 
necessarily doomed to much drudgery, are regarded as real helpmeets 
on a footing of perfect equality. Marriage is a permanent tie, 
divorce being unknown, and "conjugal fidelity till death the rule 
and not the exception" (E. H. Man). Despite the extraordinary 
complexity of their agglutinative language, radically distinct from all 
others, there are no names for the numerals beyond two. Attempts 

however are 
made to count 
up to ten by 
tapping the nose 
with the finger- 
tips of both 
hands, beginning 
with the little 
finger and saying 
one^ then two 
with the next, 
after which each 
successive tap 
makes and this. 
When the thumb 
of the second 
hand is reached, 
making ten, both 
hands are 
brought together 

to indicate 5 + 5, and the sum is clenched with the word 
ardiiru = all ! But even this feat is rare, and after tzao you usually 
get nothing but many, numerous, countless, or some other vague 
term of multitude. 

The neighbouring Nicobar Islanders are not Negritos, but of a 
somewhat low Malayan type, with perhaps a strain of black blood, 
as seen in the group from Nancowry Harbour (Fig. 26). There 
are two distinct tribes, the Shorn Pen who live in the interior of 
Great Nicobar, and are the true aborigines (Fig. 27), and the coast 
people, who are later arrivals from Malaysia and Indo-China. But 
there is now little physical difference, and all are rather undersized 




Photo by Mr. E. H. Man 
FIG. 26 



NATIVES OF NANCOWRY HARBOUR, NICOBAR 



The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 



63 



(5 ft. 2 to 3 in.), with slant narrow eyes, flat features, yellowish or 
reddish brown colour, rusty brown or blackish hair usually straight, 
but also wavy or curly, Shorn Pen always straight. One of the 
few industries is a rough painted pottery of which the islet of 
Chowra has a 
"monopoly," 
because long 
ago the Great 
Unknown de- 
creed, under 
terrible threats 
of sudden 
death, earth- 
quakes and 
other calami- 
ties, that the 
industry should 
be confined to 
the Chowra 
women. The 

popular belief 

was confirmed 

by the fate of 

one of these 

women who 

began to make 

pottery in 

another island, 

and was struck 

dead for her 

temerity. 

The Malay 

island of Banka 

off the east coast of Sumatra has also a primitive group, the Orang 

Gunong ( " Hillmen " ), who betray their Negrito descent in their 

frizzly hair, short nose, wide nostrils, and thick elevated lips 

(Fig. 29). Traces of the same connection may be noticed in the 

Sikka .of the adjacent island of Bihton (Fig. 28), and perhaps also 

in the Battas of Lake Toba, North Central Sumatra. 

In the Malay Peninsula the most typical Negritos are the 




Photo by Mr. E. H. Man. 

FIG. 27. — GREAT NICOBAR : MEMBERS OF AN INLAND TRIBE 
These are the Shorn Pen aborigines 



64 



The Woi'ld*s Peoples 



Samangs of the central inland districts, who are perhaps the only 
group that have hitherto preserved their racial characters intact. 
These Orang-utan^ as the Malays call them, are of a sooty-black 
colour, with short woolly hair clinging to the scalp in little crisp 
curls, flat nose, protruding lips and jaws, and pronounced Negroid 
features. They are true nomads without permanent stations, 
camping wherever game is most plentiful, and living in frail 
lean-to's of matted palm-leaves propped on rough uprights. Clothes 

they have next to none, and 
their food is chiefly yams and 
other jungle roots, fish, sun- 
dried monkey, venison and 
other game. Salt is so rare 
that even rock-salt when pro- 
curable is greedily swallowed 
in handfuls without any bane- 
ful results. In some districts 
they take refuge in trees from 
their hostile Sakai neighbours, 
stretching rattan ropes from 
branch to branch, and along 
these aerial bridges even the 
women will pass with their 
cooking-pots and other effects, 
with a babe at the breast and 
the bigger children clinging 
to their heels. For, like the 
Andamanese, they love their 
womenfolk, and in this way 
rescue them from the Malay 
and Sakai raiders and slavers. 
About these Sakai half-breeds (Figs. 33) who have gone over to 
the enemy and now join them in hunting down their own kinsfolk, 
the Samangs have a weird legend of some great Amazons destined 
one day to come and destroy the traitors. These mysterious female 
warriors, who dwell in the gloomy woodlands beyond the mountains, 
and are stronger, taller and bolder than any men, have even been 
seen, and their bows and blow-pipes also, larger and better carved 
than any others, are found now and then in the deep recesses of 
the forests. "Many moons ago" a Samang chief and his two 




Photo by Dr. W. A. Abbott, per Mr. C. B. Kloss 

FIG. 28. — SIKKA OF BILITON ISLAND, 
EAST COAST OF SUMATRA 



The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 65 

brothers found a dead stag lying in a brook, killed by a larger arrow 

than theirs. That instant, hearing a loud threatening cry in a strange 

tongue, he looked up and beheld a gigantic woman breaking through 

the jungle, and then his brothers fell pierced by arrows, and he alone 

lived to tell the tale. 

These Negritos appear to have reached the Malay Peninsula 

perhaps from Java during the early Stone Ages, and must have 

lived in isolated seclusion for tens of thousands of years. Hence 

their speech, so far as known, 

has diverged too widely to be 

now traced back to the Anda- 

manese, or any other common 

source. 

There is reason to think 

that the primeval home of 

the Negrito race was Java, 
where the now all but extinct 
Kalangs were formerly wide- 
spread over the whole island. 
The distinctive physical char- 
acters, and especially the 
enormously projecting jaws, 
are well seen in one of the 
only known survivors, Ardi, 
who was a few years ago 
employed in the Buitenzorg 
botanical gardens, and may 
be called the most ape-like 
of men, nearly as much so 
perhaps as his probable pre- 
cursor, the Javanese Pithe- 
canthropus eredus. Dr. A. B. Meyer speaks of a few other Kalangs 
as still surviving, and Van Musschenbroek, to whom we are in- 
debted for Ardi's photographs, tells us that he has met with the 
same type in other parts of Java, though not so pronounced, and 
that it could always be traced to a Kalang origin. This observer 
regards the Kalangs as the true aborigines of Java gradually ex- 
terminated by the intruding Malays, and looks on them as akin 
to the other Oceanic Negritos. 

Of these the most numerous at present are the Aetas ('" blacks ") 

5 




Photo by Dr. W. A. Abbott, per Mr. C. B. Kloss 
KIG. 29. — GRAN GUNGNG YOUTH, BANKA I., 
EAST COAST OF SUMATRA 
Shows Negrito characters 




Photo by Mr. Machado 

FIG. 30. — JAKUN BOYS FROM THE INTERIOR OF BATU PAHAT IN JOHORE 
The Jakuns are mostly semi-civilised Negrito-Malayan half-castes 



The Oceanic Negi-oes and Negritos 



67 



of the Philippine Archipelago, where they are also the true aborigines. 
They are still found in most of the islands, and even in Mindanao, 
where their presence was not previously suspected. But they are 
not always easily distinguished from the surrounding populations, 
many having adopted the dress, speech, and usages of the Malayan 
intruders, and largely intermingled with them, thus giving rise to 
various shades of transition between the two races. But the full- 
blood groups everywhere show the same physical and mental traits 




Photo by Dr. W. A. Abbott, per Mr. C. B. Kloss 

FIG. 31. — JAKUNS OF KLAGDONG, SOUTH MALAY PENINSULA 
Are negrito half-breeds of Malay speech 

with singular uniformity — woolly, matted hair like Astrakhan fur, 
crushed nose, broad at base, deeply depressed at root, thickish and 
everted under lip, sunken eyes set wide apart with uncertain wildish 
glance bespeaking an untamable character, long arms, slender 
extremities, and feet often turned slightly inward. Some, especially 
of the women and children, show the true Negro expression, 
heightened by the low bulging frontal bone, altogether an expression 
that one expects to meet on the banks of the Congo, but is startled 
to find animating the wooded heights in the neighbourhood of 
Manila. Here the Aetas were from time out of mind the sole 
masters, even exercising seignorial rights over the Malayan immi- 



68 The World^s Peoples 

grants. The tribute imposed on these early settlers was levied 
in kind, and when payment was refused, the Negritos swept down 
in a posse and carried off the head of the defaulter. But after 
the arrival of the Spaniards terror of the white man drove them 
to take refuge in the uplands, where they are slowly disappearing. 
In some places, however, the old relations are kept up between 
the aborigines and the later arrivals, and we are told that before 
the advent of the Americans (1898) the Negrito and Igorrote 
tribes kept a regular debtor and creditor account of heads. Wher- 
ever the vendetta still prevails, all live in a chronic state of tribal 
warfare. Periodical head-hunting expeditions are organised by the 
young men to present the bride's father with as many grim trophies 
as possible, the victims being usually taken by surprise and stricken 
down with barbarous weapons, such as the long three-pronged spear, 
or darts and arrows tipped with two rows of teeth made of flint 
or shells. To avoid these attacks some live in huts perched on 
high posts or in trees sixty or seventy feet above the ground, and 
defend themselves by showering stones on the raiders. 

The Aetas are particularly noticeable for an inextinguishable love 
of freedom and personal independence. They are happy only in 
the midst of their wooded uplands ; they neither keep slaves them- 
selves nor endure the yoke of servitude, and are, in fact, as 
untamable as wild beasts. The case is mentioned of a young 
Negrito brought to Madrid, educated for the Church, ordained a 
priest, and on his return immediately escaping to the hills. In 
social matters some progress has been made, and the tribal 
institutions are based on the family and private property. To 
the chief, not hereditary but elected for life, are referred all 
disputes, and he also punishes misdeeds in accordance with tribal 
usage. The Aetas are strict monogamists, and do not appear to 
be quite destitute of religious notions, judging at least from certain 
symbolic dances like those of the Pueblo Indians, and from the 
ceremonies associated with marriage, births, and deaths. 

Of the New Guinea Karons there is little to be said. Since 
their discovery in 1879 by the French explorer M. Raffray, not 
much has been heard of them, whether eaten or assimilated by 
their Papuan neighbours. The main point concerning them is 
that they alone of all Negrito peoples are known to have been 
cannibals. 




From a photo by Va:i Musschenbroek, per Dr. A. H. Keane 

FIG. 32.— ARDI, ONE OF THE LAST OF THE KALANGS 











i' ■■> is- ■'.■■ 


^w 


.^.■# 






p^'lr^ 






/ !» f 



P/(0^ 6y Wr. Maclunl'-) 



FIG, 33.— SAKAIS 



CHAPTER IV 

THE AFRICAN NEGROES AND NEGRITOS 

Former and Present Range (p. 70) — The Two Main Divisions : Sudanese Negro 
and Negroid Bantu (p. 71) — Contrasts and Resemblances (p. 72) — 
Common Mental Characters (p. 72) — West, Central, and East Sudanese 
(P- 73-) — Nile-Congo Negroes (p. 107) — The Negroid Bantus (p. iii) — 
The Eastern Bantus (p. 114) — The Central Bantus (p. 120) — The 
Western Bantus (p. 125) — The Southern Bantus (p. 132) — The Bushmen 
and Hottentots (p. 139) — The Negritos (p. 148) — The Vaalpens (p. 149). 

IT is still commonly supposed that the whole of the Dark 
Continent is the proper domain of the Negro race, that all of 
its inhabitants are Negroes, and in fact that African, Negro, Black, 
and even Ethiopian are all equivalent terms. Such is far from being 
the case, and two thousand four hundred years ago Herodotus was 
already aware that Africa, as known to him, was occupied, besides 
Greek and Phoenician intruders, by two distinct indigenous peoples — 
Libyans (our Hamites) in the north, and Ethiopians (our Negroes 
or Blacks) in the south. The statement still holds good, and, as 
shown in the General Survey, the Negroes, with whom alone we 
are here concerned, range from south of the Sahara to the Cape. 
A line drawn from the mouth of the Senegal through Timbuktu 
eastwards to the White and Blue Nile confluence at Khartum, then 
southwards to the equator and along the equator again eastwards to 
the Indian Ocean, will roughly indicate the ethnical divide between 
the northern Libyans and the southern Ethiopians of Herodotus. 

But long before his time extensive overlappings and comminglings 
had taken place, and these mutual encroachments have been going 
on almost incessantly from the Stone Ages. We know from the 
Egyptian records that not only Negroes but Negritos were continu- 
ally penetrating into the lower Nile valley during Pharaonic times. 
They are frequently referred to in the Book of the Dead, and, like 
the European dwarfs in mediaeval times, were in high request at 

70 



The African Negroes and Negritos 71 

the Courts of the Egyptian monarchs, who sent expeditions to 
fetch them from the "Island of the Double," that is, the fabulous 
region of Shade Land in Southern Ethiopia. Thus it is recorded 
in a temple inscription that Pepi I of the Sixth dynasty (3700 b.c.) 
brought gold and slaves from the present Sudan, and also a 
pygmy, " one of the dancers of the gods,"" to amuse the Court at 
Memphis. Pepi II also sent an officer " to bring back a pygmy alive 
and in good health " from the land of great trees away to the south. 

But the remains of these little people have been found in Europe 
itself, as at the Neolithic station of Schweizersbild in Switzerland, 
and it has been suggested that the widespread legends of dwarfs 
and gnomes supposed to haunt caves and recesses in the mountains 
may be a reminiscence of these Neolithic pygmies. From the 
Balsi Rossi caves near Mentone on the Riviera have also been 
recovered the bones of full-sized Negroes with prominent jaws, 
broad features, very long forearms, and enormously projecting^^^ 
larkspur heel, this last being a highly characteristic trait of the 
African Negro. Dr. Verneau, who explored these caves, tells us thatV 
he has met the same Negroid type in some ancient graves in Italy^ 
and even found two of the survivors in an upland village n^fir Turin 

But throughout the historic period the Negro division has been 
mainly confined to the southern section of the continent, where 
it forms two distinct groups — the northern Sudanese, commonly 
regarded as the true or typical Negroes, and the southern Bantus, 
of mixed Negroid types. Mixture, however, mainly with Hamitic 
and Semitic Caucasians, prevails everywhere, and traditional Negro- 
Caucasic forms occur in endless variety alike in both regions, though 
perhaps more frequently south than north of the equator. The 
distinction is in fact based rather on linguistic than on physical 
grounds, and to some extent also on religious differences. Sudan 
may be described as a region of linguistic confusion where from 
twenty to thirty stock languages are current, and where numerous 
Moslem and pagan populations exist side by side, and in some 
places are even intermingled. Bantuland is, on the contrary, a 
region of remarkable linguistic uniformity, where all known tongues 
are closely related, being derived from a single stock language of 
unknown origin, and where the great mass of the people are still 
nature-worshippers, mainly in the form of pure animism, or the 
cult of ancestors. 

In most other respects there is little to choose between the 



72 The World's Peoples 

Sudanese Negro and the Negroid Bantu. Both represent various 
phases of barbarism, which nowhere rises to the lowest standard 
of civiHsation, but in many places presents the aspect of sheer 
savagery, as seen in the generally hard treatment of the women, 
the undeveloped moral sense, cannibalism still prevalent over wide 
areas, the cruel practices associated with ordeals and witchcraft, 
the complete lack of science, letters, and stable political institutions 
beyond the established or traditional tribal laws and customs, and 
more especially the arrested growth of the mental faculties after 
the age of puberty. 

This trait, perhaps the most important of all, has its explanation 
in the early closing of the cranial sutures before the brain has attained 
its normal development, the further expansion of the intellectual 
faculties being thereby arrested. The phenomenon, outwardly 
shown by the exuberant growth of the physical characters, is uni- 
versal, prevailing both amongst the Sudanese and Bantu populations, 
as well as amongst the coloured people of the southern United 
States, where indeed it was first noticed about i860 by Dr. Filippo 
Manetti. This acute observer writes that in plantation times " the 
Negro children were sharp, intelligent, and full of vivacity, but on 
approaching the adult period a gradual change set in. The intellect 
seemed to become clouded, animation gave place to a sort of 
lethargy, briskness yielding to indolence. We must needs infer 
that the development of Negro and White proceeds on different lines. 
While with the latter the volume of the brain grows with the ex- 
pansion of the brain-pan, in the former the growth of the brain is 
on the contrary arrested by the premature closing of the cranial 
sutures and lateral pressure of the frontal bone." So also Colonel 
F. G. Ruffin of Richmond, Virginia : " Negro children up to the 
age of puberty learn remarkably well, but after that period of life 
has been reached they become incurably stupid and make no further 
progress." Throughout West Africa, writes Colonel A. B. Ellis, " it 
is by no means rare to find skulls without any apparent transverse 
or longitudinal sutures," and Captain Binger adds that " the develop- 
ment of the skull is stopped and prevents the further expansion of 
the brain." The result is racial stagnation, with no religious, 
intellectual, moral or industrial advancement in the Negro, who 
should be spoken of rather as non-moral than immoral, and is 
declared by Ruffin to be "a political idiot." 

Even when some progress has been made under the stimulus 



The African Negroes and Negritos 73 

of higher influences, the removal of those influences is inevitably 
followed by a relapse into the former state, as in Hayti. Here the 
reversion to Voodu and other pagan rites, to snake-worship, canni- 
balism, and similar horrors, is attested by Sir Spencer St. John, 
who had ofificial knowledge of these matters, and, after twenty 
years' residence in the " Black Republic," tells us that, the better 
influences removed, the Negro gradually retrogrades to the African 
tribal customs. Sir H. H. Johnston, who knows him well, describes 
the Negro, left to himself, as incapable of progress, and speaks of 
him as a fine animal who "in his wild state exhibits a stunted mind 
and a dull content with his surroundings, which induces mental 
stagnation, cessation of all upward progress, and even retrogression 
towards the brute. In some respects I think the tendency of the 
Negro for several centuries past has been an actual retrograde one. 
As we come to read the unwritten history of Africa by researches 
into language, manners, customs, traditions, we seem to see a 
backward rather than a forward movement going on for some 
thousand years past — a return towards the savage and even the 
brute. I can believe it possible that, had Africa been more isolated 
from contact with the rest of the world, and cut off' from the 
immigration of the Arab and the European, the purely Negro races, 
so far from advancing towards a higher type of humanity, might 
have actually reverted by degrees to a type no longer human." This, 
it may be noted, is the matured opinion of an administrator who has 
had a wider experience of the black races than almost any man living. 

The Sudanese Negroes 

In Sudan, the Beled-es-Sudan, " Land of the Blacks '' of the Arabs, 
the Nigretia and Negroland of the early English writers, a careful 
distinction has to be drawn between the semi-civilised Moslem and 
the savage or barbarous heathen populations. The Mohammedans, 
who are for the most part Negro-Berber half castes in the western and 
central districts, and Negro-Arab half-castes in the east, the black 
element everywhere forming the substratum, have for many centuries 
been constituted in fairly organised nationalities, with regular political 
and social institutions based on the principle of slavery as in all 
Moslem states. Going eastwards, the chief Mohammedan peoples 
are the Mandingans, Jolofs, and Songhays in West Sudan, the 
Hausas east of the Niger ; the Kanembu, Kanuri, and Baghirmi of 
the Chad basin ; the Mabas of Waday ; the Furs, Nubians, and Eunj 



74 The "World*s Peoples 

of Darfur, the White Nile, and Senaar ; lastly the Fulahs, scattered in 
small groups over the whole region from Senegambia to Lake Chad, 
Dominant in the west — that is^ between the Atlantic and the Niger 
— is the great Mande or Mandingan nation, an historical people with 
a record of over a thousand years as founders of the mediaeval empires 
of Melle and Guine, and of the more recent kingdoms of Masina, 
Bambara, Kaarta, Kong and others, all now mere provinces of French 
Sudan. Of the Mandingan family there are four main branches still 
named after their original animal totems, thus : Ba?nba, the crocodile, 
whence the Baimnanas, commonly called Bambaras ; Alali, the 
hippopotamus, whence the historical Malitike people ; Sama, the 
elephant, father of the Samank'e nation; and Sa, the snake, head 
of the Samokho branch. Such totemic systems are now rare in 
Africa, though formerly perhaps universal, and it is to be noted that 
at first they possessed no religious significance. They were merely 
the badges or tokens which were casually named from some object, 
generally a plant or an animal in Africa and America, and adopted 
by a family or a clan as a sort of heraldic device to distinguish it 
from other kindred groups. Such devices naturally became more 
and more venerated from age to age, acquired inherited privileges 
as sacred objects of endless superstitious practices, and were ultimately 
almost deified as the tutelar gods of the tribe. Besides these 
Mohammedan Mandingans, there are several other Mande or 
Mende groups, who stretch along the seaboard as far south as 
Sierra Leone, and are all still uncivilised pagans (Figs. 33, 35, 36, 

37. 38, 39)- 

In the fourteenth century the Mandingans under their famous 
ruler Mansa-Musa of the Mali dynasty became the most powerful 
Sudanese nation of which there is any authentic record. After 
consolidating his empire, which included most of West Sudan and 
the western Sahara, Mansa-Musa made a wonderful pilgrimage to 
Mecca at the head of 60,000 men-at-arms preceded by 500 
slaves, each bearing a gold stick weighing 14 lb., and jointly 
representing a money value of about ;^4,ooc,coo. The people of 
Cairo and Mecca were dazzled by his wealth and munificence ; 
but on the return a great part of his followers were seized by an 
epidemic called hvat^ a word which still survives in the Oasis of 
Twat, where most of them perished. 

At present the Mandingans possess no political status, but are 
noted for their industrial habits, being rivalled by few as agriculturists, 




From "I,iberia," by permission of Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C-B. 
FIG. 34. — MANDINGOS 
From Northern Liberia 



76 



The World*s Peoples 



weavers, and metal workers. From their Wolof neighbours of the 
Senegal River they are distinguished by their more softened features, 
fuller beard, and lighter colour, the Wolofs with the kindred Jolofs 
being perhaps the darkest of all Negroid peoples. They are also the 
most garrulous, as possibly indicated by the term Wolof, meaning 
" Talkers," though this may also be taken to imply that they alone are 
gifted with the faculty of speech, all other peoples speaking inarticu- 
late jargons. Their 
language, which is 
widespread through- 
out Senegambia, is 
a typical Sudanese 
tongue unlike any 
other in its peculiar 
agglutinative 
structure, and re- 
markable for the 
numerous changes 
to which the post- 
fixed article is sub- 
ject, being modified 
in no less than 
twenty-four ways, 
first to harmonise 
with the initial con- 
sonant of the noun, 
and again according 
as the object is pre- 
sent, near, not near, 
and distant, some- 
what as in the 
French voici^ voila. 
Besides this articulate form of speech there is the "drum-language," 
which is widely diffused over West Africa, and affords a striking 
illustration of the Negro's musical faculty. Two or more drums are 
used together, each emitting a different note, and all played either 
with the fingers or with two sticks, while the lookers-on beat time 
by hand-clapping. To the untrained European ear nothing is 
distinguished beyond a repetition of the same note at different 
intervals of time. But to the native the drum speaks in distinct 




From the A nthropological Museum, Ley den 

FIG. 35. — SENEGAL MAN 



The African Negroes and Negritos 77 

words and sentences, and at a palaver the company drums are 
made to express a variety of meanings. Their language is as well 
understood and more universally than the different tribal tongues. 

Only one European, Herr R. Betz, late of the Kameruns, has so 
far mastered this drum-language, which he claims to understand 
thoroughly, and even to converse in. Horns also are used by the 
Ashantis and others, and their notes are equally varied and in- 
telligible. 

The Moslem and somewhat cultured Wolofs present the sharpest 
possible contrast to the pagan Serers and Felups of the Senegambian 
coast, who are in every respect typical full-blood Negroes. The 
Serers, "African Patagonians," as they have been called, display 
a magnificent physique with their brawny limbs, great muscular 
development, and gigantic stature, but feeble mental capacity. Of 
all West Africans they are the tallest, men six feet six inches high 
being often met, and their figures might be called Herculean if the 
lower corresponded to the upper extremities. Like the Wolofs 
they build strong, roomy beehive-shaped houses with a framework 
of stout posts connected by cross-beams at different heights, the 
intervals being filled in with closely packed bundles of reeds. On 
the circular frame rests the roof, either of thatch or interlaced 
palm-branches, and at the death of the owner this roof is removed 
and placed over his grave. In the interior, forming a single apart- 
ment twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, a fire is always lit in the 
evening to keep off the witches and the wicked nocturnal spirits. 
The chief article of furniture is a capacious bedstead built up of 
six forked sticks with three cross-pieces supporting a waddle and 
large enough to accommodate six or seven persons. 

Throughout Senegambia an important section of the community 
are the despised minstrels or griots, as the French call them, a 
low class of musicians who attend all festive gatherings, and, like 
the old Irish harpers, display much ingenuity in chanting the 
praises of their patrons. The griots are not buried like other 
people, but exposed in the bush to hyenas and vultures. Their 
own belief is that they will live in peace until the day of judgment, 
after which all will return to earth and amuse themselves playing 
and dancing for ever. Others believe in the transmigration of souls, 
and gather at the new moon to conjure the spirits of air and night 
with mystic rites. There are two chief deities, a god of justice 
who protects the weak from oppression, and a god of wealth who 



78 



The World's Peoples 



is invoked for the success of all undertakings even when iniquitous 
and disapproved of by the god himself. The snake also, who is 
supposed to assume various disguises, is held in great honour, and 
formerly received offerings of cattle, poultry, and other living animals, 
but has now to be satisfied with the leavings of the public feasts. 

In the British and Portuguese territories of the Gambia and the 
Casamanza nearly all the natives are full-blood Negroes and pagans 
who, after centuries of contact with Europeans, are still little 




Photo by Mr. Cecil H. Firmin 

FIG. 36. — BUNDU GIRLS (OILED) AND "DEVILS," SIERRA LEONE 



removed from a state of sheer savagery. The Fehips, as they are 
collectively called by the Portuguese, are broken into a great 
number of small groups with no political and very little social 
organisation. Most of them are still in the matriarchal state in 
which the mother takes the first place as the head of the family, 
rank and property being transmitted in the female line. The 
women also enjoy the " suffrage " to the fullest extent, and take 
part in the village palavers on an equal footing with the men. The 
Casus, who give their name to the Casamanza river, present almost 
exaggerated Negro features : very broad face, large mouth, tumid, 



8o 



The World's Peoples 



pendulous lips, crushed nose, and enormously long ears, the lobe 
being pierced in several places and gradually extended down to 
the shoulders by the insertion of bamboo rods increased in size 
from time to time. They also file the front teeth to a point, and 
overload their nearly naked bodies Avith heavy copper necklets 
and bracelets. Neither Christian nor Moslem preachers have yet 
succeeded in making any converts amongst them, but from the 
Mohammedan marabouts they procure potent charms inscribed with 




Photo by I\Ir. Cecil H. Firmhi 

FIG. 38.— GROUP OF MENDE, SIERRA LEONE 

Koranic texts, and equally efficacious medals and scapulars from 
the Portuguese priests. 

But their faith is still strongest in the poison-cup, to which are 
subjected those accused of bewitching men o> animals. Suspected 
thieves also have to undergo the ordeal of the red-hot poker, usually 
applied to the tongue, which if blistered is taken as proof of guilt. 
Yet most of the Felups are credited with a dim notion of a Supreme 
Being, who, however, is for them at once the heaven, the rain, the 
wind, and the thunderstorm. There are also multitudes of prowling 



The African Negroes and Negritos 8i 

demons of whom they Hve in terror, and are thus at the mercy of 
the medicine-men. Nowhere else are the wizards more invoked 
and yet more hated, hence are at times seized and tortured to death 
for kiUing people by their malevolent arts and machinations. Yet, 
despite their general barbarism, the Felups have learned to build 
themselves really comfortable habitations, substantial earth houses 
which resist the weather for years and are divided into several 
compartments in the interior. Those occupying the right bank 
of the Casamanza also build very large and well-shaped canoes, 
besides spears, arrows, and other weapons which they use with 
much skill. Of a moral order it is impossible to speak, since there 
is no distinction between the meum and iuum, and, as amongst the 
Spartans of old, a successful theft is held in such esteem that in 
some places professors are appointed to teach " the noble art of 
robbery." As in Borneo a Dyak is thought little of by his betrothed 
until he has laid a head or two at her feet, so in many parts of 
Senegambia the young men are held in no account until they 
have distinguished themselves as footpads and raiders. The dead, 
however, are treated with great pomp, and until recently several 
maidens were buried alive with the departed chiefs. Human flesh 
also formed part of the " baked meats " at funeral banquets in the 
more remote districts. 

In Sierra Leone long association with the British administrators, 
combined with the strenuous efforts of the European and native 
missionaries, has brought about a better state of things at least 
amongst the half-civilised settled communities. These are mainly 
the descendants of freedmen from almost every part of West Africa, 
who were rescued by the English cruisers from the " slavers," and 
found a refuge in the Freetown territory, where under their Euro- 
pean rulers they have made some progress in general culture. In 
the early days of the settlement over one hundred and fifty languages 
were current in the district, and the confusion was so great that 
English had to be adopted as the common medium of intercourse. 
But in the mouths of this hybrid population it was so strangely 
transformed as to be utterly unintelligible to the whites. When 
a translation of the New Testament was issued in this curious 
jargon {Da Njoe Tesfamettt : London, 1829), many of the words and 
expressions seemed so comical and even profane that the book had 
to be withdrawn from circulaUon. The Sierra-Leonese themselves, 
who are mostly nominal Protestants of various denominations, bear 

6 



82 The WorId*s Peoples 

rather a bad name for their avarice, hypocrisy, degraded morals, 
and especially an insufferable arrogance displayed both towards their 
English masters and the surrounding aborigines, or " Niggers," as 
they call them. 

Yet some of these natives, the Tiinni amongst others, who were 
the dominant people before the British occupation, also hold their 
heads rather high, and not altogether perhaps without reason. 
Those of the Rokelle valley, back of Freetown, are a fine vigorous 
race with rather pleasant Negroid features and proud bearing. Like 
most Africans, they prefer tillage to stock-breeding, and raise 
enough rice and other produce to supply the wants of the Colony. 
They have an oral literature rich in myths, tales, and proverbs, 
and their tribal system of government presents some very peculiar 
features. It is nominally monarchical, and almost every village 
has its kinglet. But the day before his election his future subjects 
have the privilege of subjecting him to a tremendous thrashing, 
either as a test of endurance or for some other now forgotten 
reason. In any case he does not always survive the ordeal, and 
if he does he still finds that he bears but an empty title, for the 
real power is exercised by the so-called /«rnz ox porro, a strange 
association which controls both ruler and ruled, and to which even 
slaves are admitted on terms of perfect equality. It is a sort of 
freemasonry like the duk-duk of the Melanesians, the boll of the 
Su-Su people, and similar secret societies which are widely diffused 
throughout West Africa, all with their special language, tattoo 
marks, and other symbols, forming powerful religious and social 
corporations or states within the state. The purra of the Timni 
nation are equally potent for good and evil ; their mandates are 
implicitly obeyed, and in fact enforced by organised bands of armed 
men who are completely disguised with masks and enveloping 
costumes, and serve all the purposes of a regular constabulary. 
Their secret rites are held at night in the depths of the forest, 
all intruders being put to death or sold as slaves, and strangers 
warded off, or even prevented from entering the tribal territory 
unless escorted by a member of the guild, who is recognised by 
passwords, masonic gestures, and the like. 

In these societies great influence is enjoyed by the magicians, 
amongst whom are included the crocodiles and wild beasts, and 
when anybody is carried off by them the evil omen has to be 
averted by burning the village of the victim. But in case of a 




FIG. 39. — WASOGA WOiMEN 




Frcm phctos by permission of Major Pringle 

FIG. 40. — WAKAMBI OF SIWA RIVER 



84 



The Woi-ld^s Peoples 



natural death (never natural to the natives, but always attributed to 
the AYorkings of some witch or wizard) a formal inquest is held 
over the body, the supposed murderer being killed usually by a 
lingering death, or else enslaved with all his family. The inquiry 
is conducted by cross-examining the clothes, the hair-clippings, nail- 
parings, or other belongings of the departed, and by some mysterious 




Photo by Mr. Cecil H. Firmin 

FIG. 41. — MENDE GIRLS, SIERRA LEONE 



process these objects are made to point out the evil-doer. In some 
districts the dead are buried in an upright position, the idea being 
that they will not then have to rise but may walk straight on to their 
future home. The kings and headmen, however, are not buried in 
the ground, but deposited in a sepulchral hut with a little opening 
left to supply the ghosts with food and palm-wine, and thus keep them 
in good-humour. Otherwise they might join the hosts of demons 
which infest all nature, and must be appeased with suitable offerings. 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



85 



There are no gods in the strict sense, no priests, nor any regular 
form of worship, but every family, every clan and tribe, has its own 
tutelar fetish, which 
may be any object so 
long as it is endowed 
with an indwelling spirit 
potent for good or evil. 
Hence small shrines or 
fetish-houses, placed in 
some secluded spot 
outside the village, serve 
to shelter skulls, effigies, 
shells, and other even 
more trivial objects 
which are supposed to 
serve as temporary 
abodes of the super- 
natural agencies. 
Poultry, sheep, goats, 
bananas and other 
fruits are the most ac- 
ceptable offerings. But 
when the spirits lose 
their efficacy, that is, 
cease to aid their 
votaries, the objects in 
which they dwell are 
neglected and cast 
aside as worthless. 
Such is the true inward- 
ness of the " fetish, " a 
term which is so widely 
used and misused by 
armchair students of 
primitive religions. 

Many of the above 
remarks apply also to the 
Veis (Fig. 42), Goras 
(Fig. 43), Bussi, Krus, Grebos and the other aboriginal peoples ot 
the adjacent republic of Liberia. As in Sierra Leone, here too a dis- 




From " I,iberia," by permission of Sir Harry 
Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. 

FIG. 42. — A VEI WOMAN 
With silver head ornaments 



86 



The World*s Peoples 



tinction has to be drawn between these natives and the ruling class 
who call themselves " whites," or else " Americans " because mostly 
descended from the emancipated plantation blacks of the southern 
United States early in the nineteenth century, and later reinforced 
by numerous refugees and freedmen from British North America. 

But these 
" Weegee," as 
they are called, 
need not detain 
us further, since 
they present 
much the same 
social characters 
as the above- 
described Sierra- 
Leonese, and 
hold in even 
greater con- 
tempt the 
" stinking bush- 
niggers" of the 
interior. They 
also claim to be 
more zealous 
Christians, and 
like their kins- 
men of the New 
World hold 
those camp- 
meetings or 
open-air gather- 
ings at which 
prayers, psalm- 
singing, and 
preaching or 
shouting are varied with groans, sobs, frenzied dancing, hysterics, 
and convulsions. 

Of the Liberian aborigines the most numerous (from 50,000 to 
90,000) and in every way the most interesting are the Kriis (Krumen 
or Kruboys), a name supposed to be a corruption of the English 




From " I,iberia," hy permission of Sir Harry 
Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. 

FIG. 43. — GORA WOMEN 



The African Negroes and Negritos 87 

Crewmen, but more probably an extension of Kraoh, the name of 
one of their most powerful tribes. Physically they are a robust, 
broad-chested people of the ordinary full-blood Negro type, with 
protruding front teeth, very thick lips, yellow bloodshot eyes, the 
" head of a Silenus on the body of an Antinous," and in muscu- 
lar development 
rivalling the Sene- 
gambian Serers 
themselves. Owing 
to these qualities and 
to their aptitude for 
a seafaring life, they 
are largely employed 
as " crewmen " by 
the European skip- 
pers along the tropi- 
cal West African 
seaboard, and from 
the English sailors 
receive such comical 
nicknames as Flying 
Jib, Two-pound-tea, 
Bottle- of-Beer, 
Mashed Potatoes, 
and so on. They 
are said to be a 
thoroughly loyal, 
honest people, whose 
word can generally 
be depended upon, 
which can scarcely 
be said of any 
other Africans. 
But despite their 
long and close 

intercourse with Europeans, they resist all Moslem and Christian 
influences, and remain at heart the same rude savages as ever. 
After each voyage they return to the village to spend their savings 
in drunken orgies, divest themselves of their European clothes and 
generally revert to sheer barbarism (Figs. 44, 45). The case is 




From "lYiberia," hy permission of Sir Harry 
Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B 

FIG. 44.— KRUMAN FROM SETRA KRU 



The World's Peoples 



mentioned of a gang about to land at their own village one of 
whom is ailing. " We no want that man ; he go die," they say 
to the captain. As, however, they want his effects and cannot have 
them without the man himself, they agree to take him ashore. But 
the ship is scarcely round the next headland when they take 

him by head 
and feet and 
fling him over- 
board. And so 
is dissipated the 
mirage that has 
hitherto hung 
round the repu- 
tation of the 
Kruboy for half 
the virtues under 
heaven. 

Along the 
Upper Guinea, 
Ivory, Gold, and 
Slave Coasts 
there follow 
several Negro 
peoples — Fanti, 
Ashanti, Da- 
homi, Yortil?as, 
Benis and others 
— who form so 
many branches 
of one linguistic 
and probably also 
of one ethnical 
family. Their 
traditions bring 
most of them from the interior to the coastlands, and of the first 
two, now hereditary foes, it^is recorded that ages ago they formed 
one nation of one speech who were saved from the surrounding 
warHke tribes, some by eating of the fan, others of the shan plant, 
whence their present tribal names Fanti, Ashanti. Then they 
were driven by a red people, the Mohammedan Fulahs, to take 




From "lyiberia," hy permission of Sir Harry 
Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. 

FIG. 45. — KRU WOMEN 

In Gala Costume with enormous Finger Rings, Ram's Horns 
and Bead Necklaces 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



89 



refuge in the woodlands, where they multiplied tenfold, and after 
many adventures reached the coast, where they thought the 
hissing and foaming waves were hot water until it was found to be 
cold to the touch. But the inland peoples still think it is hot, and 
that is why they call the sea " Boiling Water." 

Several, especially the Ashanti, Dahomi and Beni, were constituted 
in powerful states where an extreme form of ancestor-worship led 




Photo by Herr Umlarf 

FIG. 46. — FANTI WOMEN, GOLD COAST 
Akin, but hostile,'to the Ashanti. Some are Christians 

to the sanguinary rites known as "Customs," that is, periodical 
feasts of the dead. The heads of all these states had gradually 
become absolute despots with unlimited power over the lives and 
property of their subjects, and as the deceased potentates had to be 
maintained beyond the grave in the same social position as in this 
world, they required a constant supply of wives, slaves, and officials. 
Thus their capitals— Kumassi, Abomey, and Benin— became veritable 



90 



The "World's Peoples 



human shambles, where the stream of blood never ceased to flow 
till arrested by the intervention of France and England in quite 
recent times. Strange to say, Benin was also the centre of a well- 
developed school of native art, and on its capture by the English 




Photo by Hen- K. Gunther 

FIG. 47. — FEMALE WARRIORS OF DAHOMEY 

The King of Dahomey maintained a corps of Amazons more formidable 

than the male warriors 

in 1897 it yielded a rich store of carved ivories, woodwork, and 
especially a series of about three hundred bronze or brass plates 
with figures in high relief of natives and Europeans and one head 
of a young^negress showing high artistic talent. Some of the more 
finished objects were no doubt'produced under Portuguese influence. 



The Affican Negroes and Negritos 



91 



On the Gold Coast most if not all of the invisible powers are 
regarded as hostile to man, and all calamities are attributed either 
to them directly, or indirectly to their agents the witches and 
wizards. Each town, village, and district, has its own local gods 
or demons who are of human shape, some black, some white, some 
m a 1 e , s o m e 
female, and they 
really exist be- 
cause they are 
seen from time 
to time by the 
priests and 
priestesses. 
They are the 
lords of the hills 
and valleys, of 
the rocks and 
forests, and es- 
pecially of the 
surf-beaten shore 
where so many 
boatmen, fishers, 
and bathers get 
drowned or de- 
voured by the 
shark-god. 
Their malignant 
nature is re- 
vealed by their 
very names, 
such as Bohsum, 
" Maker of Dis- 
asters," and the 
chief Ashanti 

god Tando, "the Hater," to whom human sacrifices are or were 
offered, usually seven men and seven women at a time. He 
resembles a mulatto in appearance, wears long flowing robes, 
carries a sword in his hand, and helps his proteges by exposing 
the secret plottings of their enemies. Sometimes also he changes 
to a little boy, puts himself in the way of the foe, and allows 




Bv permission of the Professor of Anthropology, 
Natural History Museum, Paris 

FIG. 48.— DAHOMEY MAN 

Nose and beard show a strong Hamitic strain 



92 



The World*s Peoples 



himself to be captured and taken to their towns, which he then 
wastes with the small-pox or other pestilence. To Tando are sacred 
the driver ants, which must not be molested although they march 
through the growing crops in devastating myriads. And the people 
who believe in these absurdities and act up to their convictions to 

their own det- 
riment (for with 
them religion is 
not a mere ab- 
straction, but 
permeates the 
whole social sys- 
tem) have been 
in close contact 
with Europeans 
for over four 
hundred years ! 
They are, in 
fact, "now 
much in the 
same condition, 
both socially 
and morally, as 
they were at the 
time of the 
Portuguese 
discoveries" 
(Colonel A. B. 
Ellis). 

Yet these 
children of na- 
ture display no 
little ingenuity 
in their notions 
about dreams, 

the after-life, and especially in their doctrine of the Kra, a 
sort of double or indwelling spirit quite distinct from the personal 
human soul. Both lead a separate existence, like, for instance, 
the conscious and sub-conscious self of our spiritualists, and 
both survive death, the disembodied kra becoming a sisa or 




By ■permission of the Professor of A nthropology, 
Natural History Museum, Paris 

FIG. 49. — YORUBA WOMAN 

Slave Coast, Upper Guinea 



The African Negfoes and Negritos 



93 



wandering spirit seeking some other body in which to resume its 
kra life, while the real soul becomes a s>-ahman, or ghost-man, in 
dead-land. This dead-land is itself a ghost-land, its hills and 
valleys, woods and rivers being the srahmans of corresponding 
natural features which formerly existed in the upper world. Thus 
the trees as they die reappear in the shadowy forest of dead-land, 
since all things have souls which 
must die, and, like the human 
soul, become edsietos, departed 
spirits dwelling in Edsie, the 
Ashanti Hades. The theory 
is carried even a step further, 
for the edsie itself with its 
edsieto inhabitants must 
also die, since nothing 
can live for ever; and that 
is the native's solution 
of the question of immor- 
tality (Figs. 46, 47, 48, 49). 

To the same train of 
thought that evolved the kra 
may be traced the many 
strange superstitions as- 
sociated with the widespread 
belief in were-animals, that 
is, man-animals (Anglo- 
Saxon zv e r = mOin) . As 
the disembodied kra 
can re-enter another human 
body at pleasure, so it may 
enter any animal body if 
so minded ; and when the 
kra and the personal soul were later merged in one, the real 
human soul could do the same. Then the wizards and other 
evilly-disposed people would naturally select the most ferocious wild 
beasts to effect their purpose — the wolf in Europe, whence the 
were-wolf; the tiger, bear, or crocodile in Asia; the lion, leopard, 
hyjena, shark in Africa ; the jaguar in America, and so round the 
globe. Then the same power of transformation is extended to 
the dead, as amongst the Nilotic Dinkas, who believe that the 




Photo by Hcrr I'mhir/ 

FIG. 50. — KAMERL'X WOMAN" 
The head-dress is quite unique 



94 



The World*s Peoples 



souls of wicked people may take the forms of lions or leopards. 
A transition is thus effected to the vampire, a nocturnal demon, 
or the soul of a dead man, who leaves its buried corpse to suck 
the blood of the living. Thus we see how these later survivals are 
rooted in the first crude beliefs of early man. 

In the region enclosed by the great northern bend of the Niger 

most of the inhabi- 



F.f *■ 






tants are full-blood 
Negroes little re- 
moved from the 
savage state. 
Amongst the Mossi, 
Borgiis, and others 
Islam has made 
some progress, but 
even the " Faithful " 
are still pagans at 
heart, and rely more 
on charms and magic 
than on Allah to pro- 
tect them from wars, 
sickness, and other 
troubles. When 
Captain Binger 
passed through a 
few years ago he was 
pestered for such 
things by a local 
" Imam," w h o 
pleaded hard to 
learn the names of 
Abraham's two wives 
which in his mind 
possessed some potent mana. "Tell me these," he urged, "and 
my fortune is made, for I dreamt it the other night ; you must tell 
me ; I really must have those names, or I'm lost." The Mossi 
themselves are extremely tolerant, one might say indifferent, having 
lost faith in the old beliefs without quite assimilating the precepts of 
the Koran. Binger met a nominal Moslem prince, who could even 
read and write and say his prayers, but whose two sons " knew nothing 




Photo by Mr. H. Gordon hewer 

FICx. 51.^ — BAUTCHI PAGAN BOYS 
Northern Nigeria : West African Negroes 



The African Negroes and Negritos 95 

at all," that is, believed nothing, or, as we should say, were African 
" Agnostics." One of them, however, was claimed by both sides, the 
Moslems asserting that he said his prayers in secret, the pagans that 
he drank dolo (palm-wine), which of course no true believer would do. 

In the heathen dis- 
tricts the people are 
still the merest savages, 
whose bestial orgies on 
such occasions as wed- 
dings and funerals are 
vividly described by 
Binger. Similar scenes 
occur when any large 
head of game is cap- 
tured. "Here it is that 
these blacks show 
themselves as they 
really are ; their savage 
instincts are re- 
awakened; on such 
occasions they resemble 
beasts rather than 
human beings. During 
the preliminary arrange- 
ments some daub them- 
selves with the animal's 
dung, some wash cer- 
tain parts of their body 
with its blood ; some 
eagerly devour the raw 
tripe or the entrails 
barely passed through 
the fire. Far into the 
night, roused from my 
slumbers, I perceive 
by the light of the 
camp fires these black 




Photo by Mr. H. Gordon Lewcr 

FIG. 52.— HAUSA MAN 
A cultured Mohammedan 



bones, 
eating, 



shining faces still gnawing the 
hacking at the head, broiling the heels, eating, eating, 
without even stopping to sleep. There are six of them, and by 
four o'clock in the morning the whole of the inside, with the head. 



96 



The World's Peoples 



feet, and offal of the wild ox has disappeared " {Du Niger au Golfe 
de Guinee). 

In Central Sudan, between the Niger and Waday, most of these 
aborigines have vanished, either driven to the southern uplands 
or merged in the Moslem Arab or Berber invaders. All who 

accepted the Koran formed the 
substratum of a common Negroid 
population, by which were developed 
large semi-civilised communities and 
powerful political states. Thus it is 
that for over a thousand years Cen- 
tral Sudan has been occupied by a 
small number of mixed Negro-Ber- 
ber, or Negro-Tibu, or Negro-Arab 
nations, forming distinct political 
and social systems, each with its 
own language and special institu- 
tions, but all alike accepting Islam 
as the state religion, and conse- 
quently domestic slavery as the 
basis of society. These theocratic 
monarchies are all gone, and now 
form provinces or protectorates in 
the British or French possessions. 
But the peoples remain, and of these 
at one time the most powerful were 
the Songhays or Sonrhays, whose 
empire under the renowned Moham- 
med Askia, perhaps the greatest 
sovereign that ever ruled over Negro- 
land, extended from the heart of 
Hausaland to the Atlantic Ocean, 
and from the Mossi country to the 
Twat Oasis. But after his reign 
(1492-1529) the Songhay power 
gradually declined, and was at last overthrown by the Sultan of 
Morocco in 1 591-2. Since then the Songhay nation, numbering 
about 2,000,000 between the Niger bend and Asben, has been 
broken into fragments, subject here to Hausas, there to Tuaregs, 
elsewhere to Fulahs, and to the French since their occupation of 




Phofo by Mr. H. Gordon Lewer 
FIG. 53. — HAUSA WOMAN AND 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



97 



Timbuktu in 1894. Tliey are a very mixed people presenting 
various shades of transition between the Negro and the surround- 
ing Hamites and Semites, but generally of a very deep brown or 
blackish colour with somewhat regular features, and that peculiar 
long black and ringletty hair which is so characteristic of Negro 
and Caucasic blends. Barth describes them as of a dull, morose 
temperament, the most 
churlish and unfriendly 
of all the peoples visited 
by him in Negroland. 
The Songhay language, 
which is current in 
Timbuktu and along the 
middle Niger, displays 
much ingenuity in the 
formation of com- 
pound words, such as 
tree-child = fruit, tree- 
hand = branch; boat- 
master =boat man, 
death-m aster = corpse. 
The rude character of 
this primitive form of 
Negro speech is shown 
by such clumsy expres- 
sions as man-he-good = a 
good man ; I giving it 
by force I did not wish 
it = I gave it under com- 
Dulsion ^^'°'° ^^' ■'^''' ^' ^'"'''°" ^"''''''' 

-, ' i- <■• *1 FIG. i;4.— HAUSA WOMAN AND CH-II.D 

In recent tunes the rii,. ^s^. . . _ ^ ,c,^,„ 

The Hausis are the dominant nation in Central budan 

Songhays have been 

completely eclipsed by the Bausas of the Central Sudan, who 
may rightly claim pre-eminence over all the peoples of Nigretia 
in everything that constitutes the real greatness of a nation. 
Traditionally their seven historical states, the "Seven Hausas," 
were founded and named by the seven eponymous heroes,. 
Biram, Baura, Goher, Ka>io, Katsena, and Zegzeg, and from 
these were sprung seven others called in contempt the Banza 
iokoy, or "Seven Upstarts," all collectively constituting the 

7 




98 The World's Peoples 

Hausa nation, which is by far the largest in Africa, numbering 
perhaps 15,000,000. The Hausa language, which appears to be 
a strange mixture of Negro and Hamitic or else Semitic elements, 
is spoken by many millions more, having become the lingua franca 
or common medium of intercourse throughout the greater part 
of Sudan from Lake Chad to and beyond the Niger. But the 
Hausas themselves have lost all political power, all the states 
having been reduced early in the nineteenth century by the Fulah 
conqueror Othman Dan Fodye, who founded the Moslem empire 
of Sokoto and replaced the Hausa kings by Fulah emirs. But 
since the overthrow of the last Fulah emperor and the occupation 
of Sokoto by the English in 1903, the Hausa nationality is under 
British auspices again asserting its natural social, industrial, and 
commercial predominance throughout Central and even parts of 
West Sudan. They are excellent husbandmen, raising heavy crops 
of cotton, indigo, pulse, and cereals ; they are no less skilful 
artisans and enterprising traders, dwelling in large walled cities 
and great commercial centres such as Kano, Katsena, Jakoba, whose 
intelligent and law-abiding inhabitants number many tens of 
thousands. They have also preserved the old military spirit, and 
largely enlist in the British service, displaying fine fighting qualities 
under their English officers. 

Although the Hausas are a courteous and to some extent even 
a polished people, the utmost ferocity is displayed by the pro- 
fessional boxers in their pugilistic exhibitions, which frequently 
result in the death of one of the combatants. In these encounters, 
which are extremely popular, the protagonist, that is, the last man 
who has " beaten the record," leads off by advancing nearly naked 
into the ring, where he challenges all comers by crying out defiantly, 
" I am a hyaena ! I am a lion ! I can kill all that dare oppose 
me." Then another champion takes up the challenge, and the 
tussle begins by parrying with the left hand open, and hitting 
with the right, the blows being generally aimed at the pit of the 
stomach and under the ribs. When they close, one will clasp the 
other's head under his arm and pummel it with his fist, at the same 
time using the knees against his thighs and often even attempting 
to choke him or gouge out one of his eyes. The object is not to 
throw but to disable ; so that it is not a wrestling but a real boxing 
match, in which the " fight to a finish " is to be taken in the strictest 
sense of the expression. 




[ ' Pliolo per Mr. Paul Werner 

FIG. 55. — WURI NATIVES, KAMERUN 
Dwell on the Sudanese-Bantu borderlands ; are all pagan Bantus 



loo The World's Peoples 

Round about the shores of Lake Chad are grouped four other 
historical Mohammedan nations — the Kane?nbu on the north side, 
the Kanuri of Bornu on the west, the Baghirini on the south, 
and the Mabas of Waday on the east. Here the ethnical and 
social relations are far more complex than in the Hausa states. 
Islam has had more obstacles to contend wifeh than on the more 
open central plateaux, and many of the heathen aborigines have 
been able to hold their ground either in the islands of the lake 
{Yedinas, Kuri) or on the swampy tracts and uplands of the Logon- 
Shari basin {Mosgus, Maftdaras, Makari, and many others). It 
was also the policy of the Moslem states, whose system was based 
on slavery, not to push their religious zeal too far for fear of 
arresting the supply of slaves, since all converts are at once entitled 
to their freedom. Hence certain pagan districts were treated as 
convenient preserves to be raided from time to time just often 
enough to keep up the supply for the home and foreign markets. 
The organised razzias were always attended by a great waste of 
life, many perishing in defence of their homes, or through sheer 
wantonness. Besides about i,coo actually captured. Earth writes 
that on one occasion " 170 full-grown men were mercilessly 
slaughtered in cold blood, the greater part of them being allowed 
to bleed to death, a leg having been severed from the body." 

In the wooded districts the natives have reverted to arboreal 
habits, taking refuge during the raids in the branches of huge 
bombax-trees converted into temporary strongholds. Round the 
trunk is erected a breast-high look-out, while the less exposed upper 
branches support strongly built huts and stores, where the natives 
take refuge with all their effects, and even their goats, dogs, and 
poultry. During the siege long ladders of withies are let down 
at night, when no attack need be feared, and the supply of water 
and provisions is thus renewed from hiding-places in the vicinity. 
In 1872 Nachtigal accompanied an expedition to a pagan district 
south of Baghirmi against one of these tree-fortresses, when the 
assailants, having no tools to fell the great bombax-tree, could only 
pick off a poor wretch now and then, barbarously mutilating the 
bodies as they fell from the overhanging branches. 

. Some of these aborigines disfigure themselves with the disc-like 
lip-ornament, which is also fashionable in Nyasaland, Alaska, and 
South America. The types differ greatly even in the same group, 
and while certain Mosgu tribes are of a dirty black hue with dilated 



FIG. 56. — EAST SUDANESE SOLDIERS IN THE ANGLO-EGYFTIAN SERVICE 



I02 The "World's Peoples 

nostrils, thick lips, coarse bushy hair and knock-kneed legs, others 
astonished Barth " by the beauty and symmetry of their forms, and 
by the regularity of their features, which in some had nothing of what 
is called the Negro type." The complexion varies from " a glossy 
black to a light copper or rather rhubarb colour," and one youth 
was met " whose form did not yield to the symmetry of the most 
celebrated Greek statues." But here we are near the borderland 
of the Sudanese and Bantu domains, where such contrasts are 
perhaps to be expected (Fig. 55). 

Beyond Waday we enter the Anglo-Egyptian condominium of 
Eastern Sudan, where attention is at once arrested by the remarkable 
Negroid Fur people who give their name to the state of Darfur = 
" Furland." Although long subject to Moslem control, with a Sultan 
resident in El Fasher and arrayed in rich silken robes, a voluminous 
cashmere turban and white muslin muffler enveloping the face, with 
a gilt scimitar, a regal umbrella and feather fan, and above all a 
gold-embroidered sacred pouch containing a large assortment of 
amulets, the Furs never rose to great political power, and for many 
decades have been subject either to Egypt or the Mahdi usurper. 
They are really pagans who in religious and social respects present 
the strangest medley of Moslem and primitive usages. Thus in 
time of sickness recourse is had, not to Allah or the Prophet, but 
to the wizards who are called in to exorcise the demon of disease. 
This is usually done by writing a passage from the Koran on the 
inside of a cup and then washing it out with a little water, which, 
being swallowed by the patient, often effects a cure by the force of 
imagination. 

There is a numerous class of " root-doctors," a sort of herbalists 
who gather certain roots supposed to possess magic power either 
as love-philtres or as charms for obtaining favours, or else for 
bringing about the death of an enemy, this being effected by burying 
the root wherever the shadow of the doomed person happens to 
fall. Burglars also have horns filled with roots which, when they 
break into a house at night, throw the inmates into a deep sleep, 
or make them blind or deaf, so that they know nothing of what is 
going on around them. Evil-doers can even transform themselves 
into lions, hyaenas, cats, and dogs, and by these magic arts may revive 
three days after death, come out of their graves, and go away to 
other lands, where they again get married and lead a new life. 
Even the Sultan maintains a troop of necromancers, all of whom, 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



103 



in case of any threatened danger, have the power of making them- 
selves invisible by " melting into air, into thin air." Both the 
Sultan and the higher officials also keep troops of buffoons who are 
grotesquely garbed, and divert the Court with singing, dancing, 
barking like dogs, mewing like cats, and also act as public execu- 




Phoio by Schroeder & Co., Zurich 

FIG. 57. — NUBIAN 
The Nubians are all semi-civilised Moslem hall-breeds 

tioners, as if life itself were but a joke. The low culture of the 
people is shown in many other ways, as at the "wedding breakfast," 
for which several oxen, sheep, and goats are killed. But if the 
bridegroom cannot afford this outlay, he goes to the grazing grounds 
of his nearest relatives and hamstrings as many animals as are 
needed for the occasion ; and should the owners protest they get 
knocked on the head and sometimes even killed. 



104 



The "World*s Peoples 



Being great stock-breeders, the Furs settle most of their contracts 
by so many head of cattle, the dowry of the bride, for instance, 
being rated at from ten to twenty cows according to her personal 
charm. There is, however, a kind of currency consisting of strips 
of damoor cloth twelve by four inches, forty of which make one 




Pholo by M. Pierre Petit, Paris 

FIG. 58. — NUBIAN WOMAN 

" white cloth," and two of these one dollar. Damoor is a kind of 
coarse cotton fabric, the weaving of which with a primitive loom is 
the chief industry of the men, while field operations and harvesting 
are left mainly to the women and the slaves. Both in Darfur and 
the neighbouring province of Kordofan the most useful plant is the 
heglyg (^Balamites y^gyptiaca) which serves a great variety of purposes. 
The fruit supplies several favourite dishes; the sprouts make a 




Photo by M. Pierre Petit, Paris 

FIG. 59.— A GROUP OF NUBIANS OF THE UPPER NILE 
These Nilotic Nubians are sprungfrom the Pagan Nubas of Kordofan 



io6 



The WorId*s Peoples 



good seasoning ; the chewed leaves are appHed as a poultice to 
wounds and sores ; a good soap is yielded by the unripe fruit 
pounded to a paste ; the wood burns at night like a lamp, and 
makes writing-tablets for the school children like our slates, while 
from the ashes is obtained a slightly bitter liquid salt. Lastly, the 

heglyg needs no cul- 
tivation, but grows 
spontaneously on 
these arid steppe 
lands, which but for 
it would be scarcely 
habitable. 

In Kordofan, 
which extends from 
Darfur to the White 
Nile, the most 
numerous people are 
the pagan Nubas 
who give their name 
to the Jebel-Nuba 
range, and are of a 
pronounced Negro 
type. From them 
are undoubtedly 
sprung the historical 
Nubians, who have 
for over two thousand 
years been dominant 
in the Upper Nile 
valley between Egypt 
and Berber. All 
speak dialects of the 
same language, but 
the Nile Nubians, at 
one time Christians, are now Mohammedans whose physical and 
moral characters have been profoundly modified by contact with 
both Semites and Hamites, and especially with the Moslem Arabs 
who conquered the whole land from Egypt to Khartum in the 
fourteenth century. The Nubians have preserved their distinct 
nationality, their speech, usages and traditions, but have allied 




Photo by Mr. L. Loat 

FIG. 60. — SHILLUK NATIVE 
Left Bank of White Nile 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



107 



themselves with the Arabs in the slave-raiding expeditions which 
since about 1820 ranged from Khartum to the equatorial lakes and 
were not entirely suppressed till the overthrow of the iVlahdists 
by Lord Kitchener in 1898. 

In this region, which comprises most of Egyptian Sudan and 
extends beyond the Nile-Congo water-parting into the Welle 
basin, the chief 
tribes and na- 
tions — all full- 
blood Negroes 
and pagans — 
are the Ham- 
megs oi the Blue 
Nile (Figs. 60 
and 61), the Shil- 
liiks and Difikas 
about the Sobat 
confluence ; the 
Bari and Nuers 
of the Bahr-el- 
Jebel (Fig. 61); 
the Bongos, 
Mittus, Madi, 
Abakas, Mundus 
and others about 
the western 
affluents of the 
White Nile ; the 
Mo m b ti 1 1 u s 
( Mangbattas) 
and Zatidehs 

{JViam-NiajHs) of the Welle lands. Politically the ^\^elle groups are 
now comprised within the limits of the Congo Free State, while all 
the others belong to the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, and have 
already been brought under the civilising influences of the Gordon 
College at Khartum. It is not the object of this noble institution 
to proselytise these aborigines, but onl^__to^ raise them gradu- 
ally in the scale of civilisatioi>^^nd prot<^t them against 
themselves and others by suppressing all slave^aiding, as well 
as the ordeals and human sadrifices connected ^Vith witchcraft, 




Photo by Mr. L. Loot 

FIG. 61. — NUERS, Will IE NH.E 



io8 The World^s Peoples 

ancestor-worship, and the other barbarous practices of their primi- 
tive beliefs. 

These practices need not be described in detail, since they 
everywhere present much the same features as those of other Negro 
communities. But reference may be made to certain local pecu- 
liarities, such as the belief of the Bari people that their chiefs are 
rainmakers, though the office is exercised at their peril. If no rain 
comes after the offering of a number of goats, an ox is sacrificed 
and a great feast held with much drumming, and if the rain still 
holds off for three weeks the rainmaker is killed, and his cattle 
divided amongst his subjects. He has also the power of keeping 
off the rain by whistling and sweeping away the threatening 
thunderstorm with a wisp of grass to represent a broom. But this, 
too, may fail, and Captain A. J. Bramly tells us that on one occasion 
" a storm came up which no sweeping or whistling would persuade 
to move on. I had thirty inches of water in my tent that night." 
South of the Bari are the Madi and the Acholi, mighty hunters who 
organise great beats, and drive the game before them into nets 
cunningly hidden in the long grass, in which they get entangled. 
A more barbarous way is to surround a herd of elephants, set fire 
to the grass, and spear the half-blinded beasts as they try to force 
their way through. 

Deng-deet, chief god of the great Dinka nation, is the rain-giver, 
and in all other respects described as a Dinka chief arrayed in royal 
robes, an ostrich-feather head-dress and leopard-skin mantle. To 
this anthropomorphic deity corresponds the Micama of the neigh- 
bouring Shilluks, who, like the Jehovah of the Israelites, is the 
creator of good and evil {Isaiah xlv. 7), and communicates his 
mandates to the mek, overlord of the whole nation. Like the 
Madi, the Shilluks are great hunters, and will attack an elephant 
single-handed. Gessi tells us of a certain Duma who, after killing 
many of these huge beasts, was at last hurled by one of them fifteen 
feet into the bush. Escaping with a few scratches, he said to his 
admiring friends, " I will rather eat my wife seven times than not 
take my revenge." He took it by killing nine others in one day, 
after which he called the people together and said, " Come help me 
to transport the tusks, and take as much meat for yourselves as 
you like (Figs. 62 and 64)." 

Despite the allusion to wife-eating these Nilotic Negroes are not 
cannibals, like the Mangbattas and Zandehs of the Welle basin, 






K^^ 

i^^"' 





(.A 





no 



The World*s Peoples 



In this region both of these nations had founded powerful states 
which were first weakened by the Arabo-Nubian slave-hunters, 
and then annexed by the Congolese Government. During their 
flourishing time the travellers Schweinfurth and Junker tell us that 
in the Welle lands human flesh was an article of daily consumption, 
and describe scenes of cannibalism which almost exceed the limits 
of credibility. After a battle the victors feasted on the slain, and 
fattened the captives for the royal larder and the local markets. 
Yet these peoples are skilled husbandmen, and cultivate some of 




I'hoio by Mr. L. Leal 



FIG. 63.— HAMMEGS, BLUE NILE 



the industrial arts, such as iron and copper work, weaving, pottery, 
and wood-carving with great success. Here again it has been 
noticed, as often elsewhere, that the tribes most addicted to 
cannibalism usually excel in mental qualities and physical energy. 
Nor are they strangers to the finer feelings of humanity, and above 
all the surrounding peoples the Zandehs are distinguished by their 
attachment to their women and children. 

A curious fact, noticed by Junker, is that these as well as other 
Negroes display quite a surprising understanding of prints and 
pictures of plastic and other objects such as is seldom shown by 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



the Arabs and Hamites of North Africa. Riongo, an Unyoro chief, 

was able to arrange photographs in their proper order and to identify 

those of the Shuli and other tribes known to him, whereas an 

Egyptian pasha in Khartum could never make out how a human 

face in profile showed only one 

eye and one ear. He took the 

portrait of a fashionable Parisian 

lady in extremely low dress for 

that of the bearded American 

naval officer who had shown him 

the photograph. It would seem 

as if amongst IMoslem people the 

sense of figurative art had been 

deadened by the Koranic precept 

forbidding the representation of 

the human form in any way. 

The Negroid Baxtus 

In Bantuland, comprising 
nearly all the southern section of 
the continent, the multitudinous 
Negroid populations often differ 
very little from the Sudanese 
Negroes. The assumption is that 
they are never full-blood but 
always half-caste blends of blacks 
with Caucasian Hamites or Se- 
mites. But we have seen that 
great numbers, in fact the majority, 
of the Sudanese are made up of 
the same elements, so that it is 
not surprising that the members 
of the two great divisions are not 
everywhere physically distinguish 

able from each other. Here it is that the language factor is of 
such paramount importance, since, as already pointed out, all 
Bantus without exception speak dialects of the same mother- tongue, 
while the greatest possible linguistic confusion prevails in Sudan. 
This long extinct Bantu mother-tongue, which, like the Aryan, 
Mongolo-Turki and some other great stock-languages, ranges in 




3 

Photo by Mr. L. Loal 

riG. 64. — SHILLUK, WHITE NILE 



112 The World's Peoples 

its numerous progeny over a vast area, is distinguished by several 
remarkable qualities apparently quite beyond the mental capacity 
of the natives themselves. "We find them peoples whose language 
is superior to themselves, illiterate folk with an elaborate and 
regular grammatical system of speech of such subtlety and exact- 
ness of idea that its daily use is in itself an education " (Rev. W. H. 
Bentley). This great authority refers in enthusiastic language 
to the ideal perfection of the typical Kongo tongue, its richness, 
exactness, and niceness of expression, so precise, clear, and truthful 
that it lends itself in no way to the quibblings, equivocations, and 
illogical perversions that abound in the European languages. So 
great is its structural regularity that there are virtually no ex- 
ceptions. Nor are these high qualities peculiar to Kongo, dominant 
on the west coast about the Congo estuary, but are equally 
characteristic of the whole Bantu family. " Identical rules, words, 
forms, and turns of expression are spread over the whole area, 
and are found amongst peoples who can have had no inter- 
communication since their first separation, such as the languages 
spoken at the Cameroons and in Zululand, which are 3,000 miles 
apart." The widespread possession of these qualities points to 
their existence in the parent stem, and the .explanation doubtless 
is that this wonderful form of speech was evolved, not amongst 
the Negroes proper, but by the northern Hamites, and by them 
imposed upon the black aborigines, just as the Aryan tongues 
were imposed upon the Neolithic inhabitants of Europe by the 
proto- Aryan conquerors advancing from the Eurasian steppe lands. 

In the Bantu system the most marked feature is the part played, 
not by postfixes, as mostly with us, but by prefixes combined 
with alliterative concordance. Of these prefixes there is a large 
number which serve to group the nouns in so many classes, to 
indicate the singular, the plural, the language, the country, and 
many other purposes. Thus, from a stem ;?/?<{ = personality, we 
get muntu, a person, and abantu, banhi, persons, people, which 
is the term chosen by Bleek as the collective name of the whole 
family. So from a stem ganda come Bu-ganda = Gandaland, Mu- 
ganda = a Ganda native, Ba-ganda = Ganda natives, Lu-ganda = the 
Ganda language, and so on. Then the alliteration is determined 
by the nominal prefix which must be repeated w^ith the pronoun, 
the adjective, and the verb agreeing with the noun. As in Latin 
filius, filia require the final agreements -us, -a {films mens, filia 



The African Negroes and Negritos 113 

mea), so in Bantu the plural ma-tadi = stones (from ctadi, stone) 
requires the initial ma to be repeated with all the dependent 
words, as in — 

O nia-tadi ma-ina ina-utpeinbe ina-i)ipivena 

The stones these white great. 

But the prefixes often differ greatly in the different dialects, and to 

these differences are due the perplexities and confusion that prevail 

in the nomenclature of the Bantu lands. Thus the Swahili of Zanzibar 




Photo by Mr. Ernest Gedge 

FIG. 65, — A GROUP OF WANDOROBO AND MASAI 
The Wandorobo are skilled hunters who supply the Masai with game 

have wa for ba, ki for In, and u for bu, so that with them Baganda, 
Luganda, and Buganda become Waganda, Kiganda, and Uganda. 
Hence the practice of those writers is to be recommended who in 
all cases use these more familiar Swahili forms alone. Such is the 
doctrine which has hitherto been taught by Bleek and all other 
sound students of the Bantu languages. But now Mr. J. F. 
van Oordt has started a new theory (which cannot here be discussed), 
upsetting all the old ideas and bringing the tall Bantus and their 
speech from the Malay Peninsula pygmies through Assyria and 
Babylonia to Somaliland and thence by sea to equatorial Africa, 

8 



ii4 The World^s Peoples 

whence they ranged gradually over all the southern contitleht. 
{The Origin of the Bantu : Cape Town, 1907.) The theory, based 
exclusively on weak and far-fetched linguistic arguments, would 
scarcely call for notice but for the fact that it bears an official 
character, having been prepared with the aid of the Cape Govern- 
ment and presented as a " Report to both Houses of Parliament." 

These Bantu tongues are spoken by probably over 50,000,000 
natives, who may be grouped in four main geographical divisions : 
I. East Cetitral Africa, from about the equator to the Zambesi 
delta : Waganda, Wanyoro, Wapokomo, Wagiryama, Waswahili, 
Wazambaro, Wanyamwezi, Makua. 2. The Congo basin and 
Nyasaland : Babanda, Bangala, Manyuema, Bakuba, Tushilange, 
Balolo, Warunga, Wafiba, Manganja, Wayao. 3. West Central 
Africa, from the Kamerun to Angola : Batanga, Duala, Bubi, 
Mpongwe, Ashango, Oshebo, Bateke, Cabinda, Eshi-Kongo, 
Abunda. 4. Africa south of the Zambesi: Zulu-Xoa (Zulu 
Kafirs), Bechuana and Basuto, Mashona, Makaranga, Ova-Mpo, 
Ova-Herero. 

The Eastern Bantus 

Before the recent extension of the British rule from the Indian 
Ocean to the Ruwenzori highlands, the Bantu peoples grouped 
round the shores of Lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanza were con- 
stituted in a number of separate kingdoms, the most powerful of 
which were Uganda, Unyoro, and Karagwe. But these states 
traditionally formed part of the vast Kitwara empire which com- 
prised the whole of the lacustrine plateau now partitioned between 
England and Germany. The mythical founder of this mighty 
monarchy was Kintu, the " Blameless," at once priest, patriarch, 
and potentate, who came from the north ages ago with one wife, 
one cow, one goat, one hen, one banana-root, and one sweet 
potato, and thus was the wilderness soon peopled, stocked, and 
planted with these things which still form the staple food of those 
lands. Then the people waxed wicked, and Kintu, weary of their 
evil ways, disappeared one night, though nobody believed him dead, 
and a long line of his shadowy successors spent most of their time 
in looking for him. One of these was Kimera, a mighty giant 
who left his footprints on the rocks where he trod, and with him 
was the magician Kibaga, who could fly aloft and kill people 
by hurling stones down upon them. Then came King Ma'anda, 



The African Negroes and Negritos 115 

in whose time a peasant, obeying the directions of a thrice-dreamt 
dream, went to a place in the forest where was an aged man on 
a throne between two rows of armed warriors, all fair as white 
people and clothed in white robes such as are still worn in Uganda. 
Then Kintu, for it was he, sent for Ma'anda, who in a fit of passion 
speared an innocent man to the heart, whereupon Kintu again 
vanished with all his warriors and was never seen again. But in 




.Stfi 



Photo by Rev. J. B. Purvis 

FIG. 66. — TESSO WOMEN NORTH OF MOUNT ELGON, UGANDA 
A branch of the Nandi nation near Lake Salisbury 

some places Kintu alternates with Mulungu as the name of the 
Supreme Being, the great ancestor of the people. 

Then follows other legendary matter till authentic history is 
reached with the ferocious Suna (1836-60), father of the scarcely less 
ferocious M'tesa, whom Stanley describes as one of the most 
capricious potentates that ever ruled in Africa. After his death in 
1884 Uganda and the neighbouring lands passed rapidly through a 
series of astonishing political, religious, and social vicissitudes 
resulting in the present pax Britannica and the conversion of large 
numbers, some to Islam, others to one form or another of Christianity. 



ii6 The World*s Peoples 

Since the establishment of harmony amongst the various sects, 
real progress has been made, and the Waganda especially have 
displayed a remarkable capacity for acquiring a knowledge of letters 
and of religious doctrines both in the Protestant and Catholic 
communities. Printing presses, busily worked by native hands, 
are needed to meet the increasing demand for a vernacular litera- 
ture in a region where blood had flown continually from the 
disappearance of ".Kintu" till the British occupation. 

Yet the people are still to some extent in the tribal state, being 
divided into clans each with its animal crest or totem, and with 
their exogamous (exfra-trihsl) marriage rites and restrictions, just 
as amongst the Australian savages. There are the " Grasshoppers," 
the "Sheep," the "Crocodiles," and many others, while the king's 
clan is the royal tribe of the " Princes," that is, the Wahuma, or 
" Northerners," as the term is understood in Uganda. Although 
despised by the masses as being wandering herdsmen, these 
" Princes " enjoy royal privileges, such as that of wearing brass 
or copper anklets, and their social position supplies another proof 
that their forefathers came from Gallaland as conquerors, and only 
gradually merged with the black aborigines, a process still every- 
where going on throughout East Central Africa. The Wahuma 
have reminiscences of a higher civilisation, and apparently of 
Christian traditions, derived no doubt from Abyssinia. They say 
they had once a sacred book, the observance of whose precepts 
made them the first of nations. But it was left lying about, and 
so got eaten by a cow, and since then when cows are killed their 
entrails are carefully searched for the lost volume. 

In the eastern protectorate between Uganda and the coast, the 
Wakikuyu, Wapokomo, Wagiryama and other Bantu tribes stand 
generally at a low stage of culture, with a loose tribal organisation, 
a fully-developed totemic system, and a universal faith in magic. 
But there are no priests, no idols or temples, or even distinctly 
recognised hereditary chiefs or communal councils. Special interest 
attaches to the Wagiryama of the district below Mombasa, whose 
crude religious notions throw some light on the origin and nature 
of ancestor-worship and other primitive beliefs. There is a vague 
entity called a " Supreme Being," who ranges all over East Bantu- 
land under the name of Mulungu and several other contracted 
forms of Mimkiilunkulu ., "Great Grandfather," a great or aged 
person, eponymous hero or the like, growing out of ancestor-worship 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



117 



and deified in various ways as the Preserver, the Disposer, and 
especially the Creator. 

The Wagiryama suppose that from his union with the earth all 
things have sprung ; that human beings are Mulungu's hens and 
chickens, and that the de- 
parted souls are potent for 
good or evil. Hence to keep 
them friendly, honours are 
paid to the " elder relatives," 
and the souls of the whole 
nation are worshipped on 
public occasions. They may 
appear in dreams and ex- 
press their wishes to the 
living. They ask for offer- 
ings at their graves to 
appease their hunger or 
thirst, and such offerings 
are often made with a little 
flour and water poured into 
a coconut shell let into the 
ground, the fowls and other 
victims being so killed that 
the blood shall trickle into 
the grave. Then the dead 
are called on by name to 
come and partake, and bring 
their friends with them, these 
also being mentioned by 
name. Or when beer is 
a-brewing some is poured 
out on the graves with the 
prayer that the dead may 
drink, and when drunk fall 
asleep, and so not disturb 
the living with their brawls 

and bickerings. They are all in fact still human beings, subject 
to the same feelings, passions, and whims as in this life, 
are even poor weaklings on whom offerings are wasted. 
Shade of So-and-so's father is of no use at all ; it has tinished 




From '' Tlie Uganda Protectorate," hy permission 
of Sir Harry Johnston, K.C.M.G., K.C.B. 

FIG. 67. — ALURU WOMAN AND CHILD 

]-ROM WAUEI.AI 

Akin to the Madi of the Bahr-el-Jebel 



Some 
The 



ii8 The World*s Peoples 

up his property and yet he is no better," was a native's comment 
on a series of sacrifices a man had vainly made to his father's 
shade to regain his health. Mulungu was originally a malevolent 
deity, and though now harmless or indifferent to mundane things, 
his votaries still pray, not as Christians do to be remembered of 
the saints and heaven, but to be forgotten by him, so that they may 
live and prosper. 

Far removed from such crass anthropomorphism are the kindred 
Waswahili (" Coast people," from Arab Wz^/= coast) of Zanzibar 
and the opposite mainland, who by long contact and intermingling 
have become largely Arabised in dress, religion, and general culture. 
They are a seafaring, barter-loving race of slave-holders and slave- 
traders, strewn in a thin line along a thousand miles of creeks and 
islands ; inhabitants of a coast that has witnessed incessant political 
changes, and a succession of monarchical dynasties in various 
centres. Although numbering scarcely a million altogether, the 
Waswahili have in recent times acquired almost greater prominence 
than any other Bantu group, thanks mainly to their adoption of 
Islam, which has supplanted the old Bantu ancestor-worship and 
profoundly affected the whole family life. Like the northern 
Nubians they have identified themselves with the Arabs, whose 
traders and raiders have overrun half the continent. But the 
Arabs have never succeeded in imposing their language on any 
of the Bantu peoples, and the result is that, not Arabic but Ki- 
Swahili has become the great medium of intercourse throughout 
East Central Africa. 

Nor have Arab civilising influences penetrated very deeply into 
the seething mass of heathendom, the gross superstitions, and utter 
savagery that still prevail in German East Africa between the Swahili 
coastlands and Lake Tanganyika. No more startling contrasts can 
be imagined than those, for instance, that have been observed 
between the Moslem coastlanders and their western neighbours, the 
pagan Wazarambo of the Rufiji River, who still go naked but for 
a fringe of grassy fibre, slash their cheeks with deep gashes (their 
method of tattooing), knead their hair with clay and grease into 
towering head-dresses, use poisoned arrows, burn the wizard and 
all his family, throw twins to the bush, or expose to wild beasts 
children bom on unlucky days. 



I20 



The World's Peoples 



The Central Bantus 

If we add cannibalism in some of its most repulsive forms to 
this picture of human brutality, the description will apply equally 
well to the Ba-Bisa of Lake Bangweulu, to the Manyuenia, and most 
of the other Bantu aborigines of the Congo basin (Fig. 70). But 
there are some notable exceptions, such as the semi-cultured Balolo 
("Men of Iron"), whose territory is enclosed northwards by 
the great horseshoe bend of the Congo, and especially the 
Tushilange nation about the Lulua nfifluent of the Kassai River. 

These are the 
[ people whom 

• Wissmann de- 

scribes as " a na- 
tion of thinkers 
with the inter- 
rogation ' why ' 
constantly o n 
their lips." They 
are thoroughly 
honest, brave to 
foolhardiness, 
faithful to each 
other, and one 
of the few Afri- 
can tribes that 
show genuine 
affection for their wives and children. Their territory, signifi- 
cantly called Lubuka, the " Land of Friendship," is the theatre 
of a remarkable social revolution, carried out independently of all 
European influences, in fact before the advent of any whites on the 
scene. It was started by the secret brotherhood of the Bena- 
Kianiba ("Sons of Hemp") about 1870, when the nation became 
divided into two factions over " the Tariff Question," that is, 
whether the country should be thrown open to free foreign trade 
or not. The king having sided with the " Progressives," the 
" Conservatives " were worsted with much bloodshed, whereupon 
the "open-door" policy was adopted. Trading relations being 
thus established with the outer world, the custom of riamba (bhang) 
smoking was unfortunately revived through the Svvahili packmen 




Pholo by Miss Palmer 



I. — NYASA CHILDREN 



The African Negroes and Negritos 121 

from Zanzibar. The practice soon became associated with strange 
mystic rites followed by a general deterioration of morals through- 
out Tushilangeland. 

In Nyasaland the most characteristic peoples are the Wayao, 
Livingstone's Ajawa, and the Ma;igaitja (A-Nyanja) aborigines. 
Having acquired a certain degree of culture from long contact with 
the Mussulman peoples, the 'W'ayaohave sometimes passed for Moham- 
medans, and during the slave-raiding days they generally acted 




From a native photograp't per Miss M. Kingsley 

FIG. 70. — NATIVES OF FREN'CH CONGO 
Are all pagan Bantus and mostly cannibals 

as a sort of middlemen between the inland populations and the Arab 
and Swahili traders on the seaboard. But most of them still adhere 
to the old pagan practices, and at the funerals of chiefs a few women 
and slaves are said to be secretly sacrificed or buried alive. It is 
even stated that cannibalism is still indulged in by the great chiefs, 
who often hold feasts of human flesh in secret. One headman is 
mentioned who made feasts of this kind and then invited Moham- 
medans and other strangers to partake of the fare, telling them that 
it was goat's meat, of which the coast people are very fond, Chuma, 
Livingstone's faithful attendant, was an Ajavva. 



122 The World's Peoples 

Although the Scottish missionaries of Blantyre have laboured for 
many years amongst the Manganja, the bulk of the nation are still 
addicted to heathenish practices of all kinds. The atrocities 
connected with witchcraft, the cruel ordeals and hurran sacrifices, 
are of course no longer tolerated by the British Administration. But 
the belief in gods not always distinguishable from demons, in their 
manifestations, omens, portents, oracles, divination, magic, and end- 
less other superstitions, knows little abatement. The treatment of 
sickness is largely by charms accompanied by much senseless 
mummery intended to thwart the arts of the sorcerer, to whom all 
diseases are attributed. The diviner is the great adviser of the people 
in all their troubles. In giving their responses they shake a small 
gourd filled with pebbles, and inspect bits of sticks, bones, claws, 
shards which are kept in another gourd. The witch-detective is at 
the head of the divining profession, and is referred to in almost every 
case of death. 

The spirits of the dead are the gods of the living, and their temples 
are the great trees that overshadow the dead men's houses ; and 
if no trees grow there, then they erect a little shrine where they 
perform their simple rites. But these gods are not confined to one 
place. In answer to prayer they may escort a man on a dangerous 
journey and see him safe back. When driven from their homes 
by war, the manes may go with them to their new homes. They 
may be found in the village, in the fields, in the dark forests, and 
the spirit of an old chief may have a whole mountain to himself, 
but will dwell chiefly on the cloud-capped summits, to receive the 
worship of his votaries and send down the refreshing showers in 
answer to their prayers and offerings. He may appear to the people 
in dreams, or reveal himself to the prophetess, perhaps his former 
chief wife, and communicate his wishes at night, and these oracles 
she may deliver in a state of ecstasy, when the midnight stillness 
is broken by her wild shrieks and ravings. Or the god may appear 
in an animal form, as a lion, a panther, and especially a snake ; 
and if a man happen to kill such a snake, he apologises to the 
offended deity, saying, " Please, please, forgive me, I did not know 
it was your snake." But the gods are approached only by the 
headmen, who are at once temporal rulers and the recognised high 
priests of the community, and if from home the chief wife may 
act, or if both be away, the younger brother, for the worship is 
more a public than a private iijatter, Naturally the people prefer 



The African Negroes and Negritos 123 

their petitions presented through the village chief, who is more 
closely related to the village god, and may be expected to have 
more influence with him than a stranger. Thus the chief repre- 
sents and is responsible for all his subjects both here and in the 
next world, which is conceived to be peopled the same way as 
is this. The departed rulers have their wives, and slaves, and 
companions as before, and after death the natives are literally 
" gathered t o 
their fathers." - ^ . 

F o rmerly 
the offerings 
included h u - 
m a n beings, 
who were 
securely bound 
10 a tree, and 
if devoured by 
a wild beast 
during the 
night, the offer- 
ing had been 
accepted. Or 
else they were 
tied hands and 
feet andthrown 
into the lake 
or river with a 
large stone 
round their 

neck, so that they were either drowned or seized by the crocodiles. 
Xow the offerings are confined to a goat, a fowl, a bale of cloth, 
flour, bhang, tobacco, or beer, which is both food and drink. It 
is a thin gruel extracted from maize or millet, and a wholesome 
beverage if not drunk to excess. But, like Porson, the natives 
will drink anything, even stagnant water, which they throw into the 
mouth by the handful. Maize and millet serve also for a kind 
of porridge, which takes the place of bread, and is eaten with beans 
or meat, but without salt. The men despise both ornaments and 
clothes, except perhaps a square foot of cloth or a bunch of foliage, 
or a leopard's skin. But the women deck themselves with beads 




FIG. 71. — WOMAN AMj CHILDREN OF THE CONGO 



124 



The World*s Peoples 



and bangles, brass or iron armlets and anklets, and the universal 
pelele, a wooden disc, worn in the upper lip. A small hole bored 




FIG. 72.— CONGO MEN 



in the lip is gradually widened by the insertion of thicker and 
thicker stalks of grass till large enough to receive the ring, which 
may be three or four inches round. In fact, they say the bigger 
the better, as it makes them look " pretty." 



The African Negroes and Negritos 125 

The Western Bantus 

On the west coast the only historical people are the Eshi- 
Kotigo, who had founded a powerful state south of the Congo 
estuary before the advent of the Portuguese in 149 1. The term 
" Kongo," from which the great river, formerly called Zaire, takes its 
present name, has not been explained, but appears to be the title 
of one member of a " Trinity," of which the other two are Nzambi, 
" Mother of Congo," and Detsos, evidently a Portuguese formation. 
The idea of this native trinity may thus have been derived from 
the Catholic religion, which was at first preached by the missionaries 
with great success, many thousands being baptized, including the 
Mfumu (" Emperor ") himself. His capital, Mbanza, was re-named 
San Salvador, as it is still called, and on him were lavished 
titles and honours which are also still borne by his degenerate 
descendant, the Portuguese State pensioner, " Dom Pedro V., 
Catholic King of Kongo and its Dependencies." But Christianity 
never took hold of the people, and heathenish practices of the 
worst description everywhere survive on both banks of the Congo 
estuary jointly with the crucifixes, banners, and other religious 
emblems handed down as heirlooms and regarded as potent fetishes 
by their owners. The Cathedral of San Salvador is in ruins, but 
the memory of the Passion is kept alive by the Cabinda people, 
north of the Congo, who to the other atrocities inflicted on witches 
and wizards have added crucifixions as described and illustrated 
by R. E. Dennett. The execution is presided over by the Badungo, 
a mysterious being disguised in a hideous double-faced mask and 
enveloped in a loose garment of dried banana or plantain leaves, 
and armed with a long wooden sword, while the victim is nailed 
hands and feet high above the ground to a large tree, the torture 
being increased by a heavy slave-stick looped round his neck. Yet 
these Cabindas are really an intelligent, active, and even enterprising 
people, and such shrewd traders that they have been called the 
Jews of West Africa. 

After the fall of the Congo empire, the Sonho people south of 
the Congo estuary, and most of the other surrounding aborigines, 
asserted their independence and revived all their old pagan practices 
intermingled with European customs introduced by the traders. 
The neighbouring Mushi-Coiigos, who claim to have sprung from 
the trees, have but few domestic idols in their huts, but nearly all 



126 Tke WofId*s Peoples 

natural objects are real fetishes, that is, are animated by indwelling 
spirits, and every unexplained natural phenomenon seems to 
them some supernatural prodigy, or the work of some potent 
magician. Women often devote their firstlings to the service of 
the fetishes, and from their childhood these future priests are taught 
by the great fetishists the occult arts, as how to beat the magic drum, 
to utter the spells and incantations, to make the proper gestures and 




From "The Uganda Protectorate," by permission of Sn Huiiy Johnston, K.C.M.G.. K.C.B. 

FIG. 73. — NATIVES OF THE UPPER CONGO, NEAR THE ARUWIMI (SHOWING 

CICATRISATION AND TEETH-SHARPENING) 

Are pagan Bantus and cannibals 

contortions required for conjuring the spirits or dispelling bodily 
ailments. 

' Amongst the Bauibas the puberty rites are attended by a long 
period^^ trials for initiation into the state of manhood. During 
this period the young men, formed into temporary republics in the 
recesses of the forests, dwell entirely apart from the rest of the tribe, 
absorbed in the study of the magic virtues of the herbs, trees, and 
animals, and in concocting the various "medicines" which they 
are required carefully to preserve during their whole life as a 
protection against all misfortunes. The king of the Bambas, whose 



The African Negroes and Negritos 127 

ancestors were invested with the office of commander-in-chief by 
the Emperor of Congo, is said to be now the keeper of the great 
fetish who dwells in a sacred grove inaccessible to all strangers. 
This mysterious being remains invisible even to his worshippers 
themselves, and although he is supposed to be mortal, his priests 
gather up his remains, and from these the god springs ever into 
new life, just as the Tibetan Dalai Lama is supposed never to die. 

Still more remarkable is the theory that all the members of 
the tribe have in the same way to pass through a temporary death, 
and it is reported that when the priest shakes his calabash, full of 
all sorts of charms, the young men are thrown into a cataleptic sleep, 
falling like dead bodies on the ground. They remain in this 
comatose state for three days, then returning to the life which they 
henceforth consecrate to the worship of the fetish by whom they 
are supposed to have been resuscitated. Some, however, wake up 
in a drowsy state, and only gradually recover the memory of their 
previous existence. But, whatever be the practices of the Bamba 
magicians, it seems probable that they really possess this power of 
throwing the young men into a cataleptic state outwardly resembling 
death. Those who have not passed through this ceremony of the 
new birth are universally despised and forbidden to join in the tribal 
festivities. 

Strange traditions are reported by Magyar about the Bitiuia 
people, a large nation who occupy the uplands extending south 
from the Cuanza River. They appear to have come from the 
north-east about the middle of the sixteenth century. Their 
ancestors, who were fierce cannibals, were constantly waging war 
against all the surrounding tribes in order to procure human flesh, 
and when they had no longer any enemies to fall upon, they began 
to kill and devour each other. The whole race was thus threatened 
with extinction by these everlasting butcheries, when, according to the 
legend, there was constituted the secret society of the e/iiJ>acasstiro$, 
or "buffalo-hunters," who pledged themselves no longer to eat any 
flesh except that of the wild beasts of the forest. The members 
of this association were distinguished by a buffalo-tail tied round 
their head, and rings formed by the dried entrails of the same 
animal coiled round their arms and legs. In course of time the 
confederates became powerful enough openly to revolt against the 
cannibals, Conservatives of the old usages. But being compelled to 
quit the country, the Liberals crossed the Upper Cuanza towards the 



128 



The World's Peoples 



west, and settled in the territory of the Bailundos and neighbouring 
districts, where they gradually learned the art of husbandry and 
became fast friends of the Portuguese. Their numerous bands, 
numbering at times as many as 30,000 warriors armed with bows 
and arrows, took part with them in the early " black wars " by which 
Angola, with its extensive dependencies, was gradually brought under 
Portuguese jurisdiction. The cannibal Conservatives who remained 
behind were now too weak to maintain their superiority over the 
surrounding populations, by whom they appear to have been slowly 




Photo by the Trappist Mission, Mariannhill, Natal 

FIG. 74. — ZULUS GRINDING CORN 



absorbed. But the Buffalo-hunters are another instance of an 
internal revolution brought about by an intelligent Bantu people 
without the aid of European or other outside influences. 

Farther inland the most numerous and still perhaps the most 
powerful nation are the Batigalas of the Quango River, who also 
acquired some of their religious notions from the Roman Catholics 
of the Congo empire. This is shown, for instance, in the word 
santo, which is the Portuguese " saint," but is now applied in a 
general way by the Bangalas to an inferior order of invisible beings, 
such as our spooks, trolls, and hobgoblins. These Bangalas are 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



129 



noted for the great respect which they show to the dead, and 
especially to their departed chiefs, whom they honour with solemn 
obsequies which often last several days. Dr. Biichner has given 
us a graphic account of such a "state funeral" which he witnessed 
in the year iSSo. Belenge, eldest son of the head chief, had 
been suddenly taken ill and carried off in two days, although the 
fact was not announced in the first instance by the officials. This 
■was because it is not etiquette for them to be the first to utter the 
ominous words " death " or " dead." Hence the news is only given 




Phoio by Trappist Mission, Mariannhill 

FIG. 75.— ZULU-KAFIRS 



on some question being put, as, for instance, " How is So-and-so ?" 
To this the courtier will shrug his shoulders with troubled, downcast 
look, whereupon the inquirer will ask, "Dead?" Then the answer 
will be " Dead," and the fact officially announced with the explana- 
tion, as in this instance, that the chief's son had lost his life through 
the wicked forest fiend Kosh, probably aided and abetted by some 
malicious wizard in human form. Now came the relatives from 
near and far, and the whole neighbourhood fell into a state of 
intense commotion with meanings and waitings interrupted by 
interludes of uproarious hilarity. All the drums and other noisy 

9 



i3c> The World*s Peoples 

instruments that could be procured were now requisitioned ; pigs, 
goats, and cattle were sacrificed, beer and spirits flowed freely, 
and whoever had a gun brought it with him in order from time 
to time to blaze away over the heads of the seething masses. The 
whole night long till the grey dawn these wild scenes are kept up, 
increasing in intensity in the flickering and lurid glare of great 
bonfires. Only during the forenoon there is a little respite, but 
towards the evening it all breaks out again, all are once more on 
their legs, and the r-evelry grows fast and furious. 

After the tom-toming, yelling, singing, dancing, and shooting 
had lasted two nights, arrangements were made for the burial on 
the third day. Each evening at sunset the deceased had been 
brought out before the door of his hut, bound fast in a sitting 
posture to a chair-like frame of rough stakes, the idea being that 
he also should have a share in the festivities got up in his honour. 
Then shortly before sunrise he was again withdrawn into the hut. 

Now the chief gave a reception to two famous medicine-men to 
give his orders about the burial. But they would have nothing to 
do with the body, as they seemed to fear the wicked Kosh might 
destroy them too. They, however, had to yield and obey the chief's 
orders. In the open space facing the hut of the deceased, the 
chief's relatives sat in groups, the scene presenting some picturesque 
effects of parti-coloured robes, ornamental head-dresses, and a 
cheerful gossiping crowd, but not a trace of mourning except on 
the part of the women —his mother and two waves — who sat together 
moaning and groaning close to the bier. 

The two medicine-men had meantime irjade a mysterious brew 
of roots and herbs in two pots, in which they now dipped bunches 
of foliage and sprinkled the dead and the living groups with the 
mystic concoction, as against the plottings of Kosh and the wizards. 
Now the bier appeared, borne by four youths, who were presently 
directed to the back of the hut, where a dental operation had to 
take place. For Belenge had been a great hunter, and to prevent 
his skill from perishing with him, one of his incisors had to be 
secured and used as a hunting charm. 

This done, the body was again brought forward and subjected 
to a searching " cross-examination," to find out by its own confession 
the real cause of its death, whether Kosh alone or some sorcerer, 
or any of the " santos," or all combined. The deceased seemed 
to show very great reluctance to speak out, and the assembly, 



132 The "Wofld*s Peoples 

growing impatient, began to abuse him, and ask, " Are you going 
to keep us here all day ? You see the storm is rising in the distance ; 
the clouds are banking up, it is beginning to rain, and we shall get 
wet. Come, speak out and tell us who caused your death." 

At last it was generally agreed, or at least tacitly understood, 
that Belenge had declared from first to last that he had been killed 
neither by witchcraft alone, nor yet by Kosh alone, but both had 
worked together to compass his end. A fetishist or magician had 
given Kosh power over him, and so he was then struck down. Thus 
was concluded the questioning, which had lasted about three hours. 

After a last farcical exhibition, in which the body was made 
to sway backwards and forwards in tune with some funeral music, 
which meant that it was dancing itself to the grave, or, as we should 
say, following the " Dead March in Saul," the assembly dispersed, 
and Belenge was carried off to be interred in a neighbouring grove, 
which had been set apart as the village cemetery. 

Here again we plainly see how even these more cultured Bantus 
have not yet quite realised the nature of death. They do not under- 
stand that man must die ; hence at each demise the question always 
is, Of what did he exactly die ? Who brought about his death ? 
As much as to say, but for such and such a fiend, such and such a 
wizard, he might be living now, he might never die I 



The Southern Bantus 

South of the Zambesi the Bantu populations comprise three main 
sub-groups : Zulu-Xosa in the south-east ; Bechua7ia with the kindred 
Basido in the centre; and the Ova-Herero and kindred Ova-Mpo 
in the west. The Zulu-Xosas, that is, the Ama-Zulus of Natal and 
the Ama-Xosas of Cape Colony, are now commonly called " Kafirs," 
from the Arabic word Kafir (" Infidel ") applied by the Moham- 
medans to all the non-Moslem peoples of East Africa. Of all 
the Bantu peoples they are certainly the most warlike, and socially 
perhaps the most advanced, hence are usually regarded as typical 
Bantus in a pre-eminent sense. They are comparatively recent 
arrivals in their present territory, whence they expelled the Bushmen 
and the Hottentots probably not more than 500 or 600 years ago. 
During the long wars with the English (181 1-77) this territory 
extended much farther round the coast than at present. But the 
lost ground in this direction was amply compensated after the 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



^33 



establishment of the Zulu military power under Dingiswayo and 
Chaka (i 793-1828), when disciplined Zulu bands ranged northwards 
to Lake Tanganyika, and in several places founded aggressive 
states on the model of the terrible despotism set up in Zululand. 
Such were, beyond the 
Limpopo, Matabililand, 
established about 1838 by 
Umzilikatsi, father of 
Lobengula, who perished 
in a hopeless struggle with 
the English in 1894, and 
Gazaland, whose last 
ruler, Gungunhana, was 
deposed by the Portu- 
guese in 1896, while 
Cetywayo, last of Chaka's 
successors, was o v e r - 
thrown and Zululand at- 
tached to Natal in 1879. 
Since then the Zulu-Xosas 
have ceased to be a 
political force in South 
Africa (Figs. 76, 77, 79). 
And now all have re- 
turned to their peaceful 
agricultural and other 
pursuits, beguiling the 
long intervals of enforced 
idleness with social dis- 
tractions like other folks. 
The patriarch stands at 
the head of his family 
and maintains order by 
the tribal customs. The 
matrons are busy pre- 
paring the breakfast of the children, who take their porridge direct 
from the pot (Fig. 78). The warriors, still mindful of past glories and 
armed with their knob-sticks and assegais, make their visits to 
friendly kraals according to prescribed usage. Much time is given 
to local gossip at the springs and wells, where the young water- 




Pholo by Trappist Mission, Mariaiiiihill, Natal 

77. — ZULU-KAFIRS, POLELA RIVER, 
NATAL 



FIG. 



134 



The World*s Peoples 



carriers, always full of boisterous spirits, explode in hilarious laughter 
over nothing. Hut-building, always an elaborate process, is carried 
on in a leisurely way, relieved perhaps with a bout-at-arms by two 
friendly rivals. Music and the dance, wooing and wedding, and the 
formerly much-dreaded, now comparatively harmless witch-doctor 
or fortune-teller, help to fill up the rest of the time. 

Nowhere have patriarchal institutions been more highly developed 
than amongst them. Nearly all claim direct descent from some 
real or mythical founder of the tribe, Chaka from a legendary 




Phoio by Trappist Mission, Ma/ iannlnll, Natal 

FIG. 78. — ZULU CHILDREN AT BREAKFAST 



chief, Zulu; the Galekas, Gaikas and others of Kaffraria from 
Xosa, the Ama-Tembu from Tembu, an elder brother of Xosa 
and so on. Thus each tribe formed a sort of patriarchal state 
ruled by a hereditary feudal chief independent within his own 
jurisdiction, but controlled by a powerful aristocracy, who met in 
council and established precedents and a code of common law, 
such as is met in no other Bantu community. For the administra- 
tion of the law there were subordinate^courts from any of which 
appeals might be taken to the Supreme Council presided over by 
the paramount chief, who was both the ruler and the father of 



5 ^ 




136 



The World's Peoples 



his people. Although the Zulu-Xosas have been unable to shake 
off the trammels of the primitive superstitions associated with 
witchcraft and ancestor-cult, these social institutions give proof 
of high mental powers which correspond with some of the physical 
characters, such as nose and features often quite regular, short 

black hair rather 
fr i z z 1 y than 
woolly, colour 
sometimes of a 
light or clear 
brown (Ama- 
Tembu), though 
also almost blue- 
black ( A m a - 
Swazi), mean 
height nearly six 
feet, shapely and 
muscular frame, 
though seldom 
approaching the 
ideal standard of 
beauty spoken 
of by some ob- 
servers. 

With the 
B e c hu a n a s , 
whose territory 
extends from 
the Orange River 
to the Zambesi, 
and includes 
Basutbland, the 
Orange Colony 
and most of 
Transvaal, we again meet a people at the totemic stage of culture. 
Here the eponymous heroes of the Zulu-Xosas are replaced by 
baboons, fishes, elephants, antelopes, crocodiles, and other animals 
from whom the Barolong, Bakwena, Bamangwato, Barotse, and the 
numerous other Bechuana tribes claim descent. A section of the 
Barotse (Marotse), who are recognised as the elder branch of 




Photo by Trappist Mission, MariamihiU, Natal 

FIG. 80. — A ZULU BEAUTY 



The African Negroes and Negritos 137 

the family, migrated early in the nineteenth century to the Zambesi 
above the Victoria Falls, where they founded the " Barotse 
Empire," whose present ruler, Lewanika, attended the coronation 
of Edward VII., and has accepted the British protectorate. For 
a time the Barotse dynasty was superseded by that of the renowned 
Makololo chief Sebituane, who reached the Zambesi from Basuto- 
land about the year 1835. But in 1870 the Barotse suddenly 
revolted, exterminated the JSIakololo almost to a man, and restored 
the empire on a stronger footing than ever. But the Makololo rule 
had lasted long enough (1835-70) to impose their language on 
the vanquished. Hence the curious phenomenon now witnessed 
about the jNIiddle Zambesi, where the Makololo have disappeared, 
while their Sesuto tongue remains the common medium of inter- 
course throughout the Barotse state. Christianity has made some 
progress both amongst the Basuto and the Bamangwato under 
their chief Khama, and the Bechuana nation generally has 
given up its more barbarous heathenish customs. Several tribal 
groups are now merged in industrious pastoral and agricultural 
communities, and may claim to be regarded as integral parts of 
Christendom. The Pilgrinis Progress has been accurately translated 
by a native into one of the southern dialects. 

In German South-w^est Africa, the northern section is occupied 
by the closely related Ova-Hercro and Ova-Mpo Bantu peoples, 
who range from the Cunene river on the Portuguese frontier to 
Walfish Bay, where they meet their hereditary foes, the Nama, 
Hottentots of Great Namaqualand. But since they have felt the 
heavy weight of the German rule both Hereros and Hottentots 
have settled their local feuds and joined hands against the common 
oppressor. The Hereros, that is, " Merry Folk," are often wrongly 
called Damaras ("Cattle Damaras," or " Damaras of the Plains"; 
"Hill Damaras" of the Coast range), and their q.o\xx\\.x)' Damara- 
la?id, for which the Germans have now rightly substituted 
Hereroland. "Damara" is a Hottentot word meaning the "two 
Dama women," but was applied to the country by the first explorers, 
to whom, on asking its name, their guide answered " Damara," 
thinking they referred to two Dama women passing at the time. 
Both the Hereros and their cattle show a singular dislike for salt, 
which may be due to the heavy vapours slightly charged with 
saHne particles which hang so frequently over the coastlands. 
These Bantus are physically a tine race, tall, robust, with regular 



138 



The Wofld^s Peoples 



features and bright expression, bespeaking a ilarge degree of in- 
telligence (Fig. 8i). This applies especially to the Ova-Mpo branch, 
one of whose tribes has dethroned its hereditary " kings " and 
adopted a republican form of government. As amongst the 
Hottentots, the national garb is the kaross, a short mantle of lion, 
leopard, deer, or goat skin, to which some add fifty to eighty fathoms 
of leather thongs coiled round the hips, and a long leather pouch 
hanging down the back. Their cooking utensils are never washed 

but lapped clean by the 
dogs, as the cows would 
run dry were any other 
cleansing process 
adopted. 

Dead chiefs are 
buried with much for- 
mality, the body being 
first broken with a large 
stone, then doubled up 
chin to knee, wrapped 
in the hide of an ox 
killed for the occasion, 
and deposited in the 
grave with its face 
turned northwards in 
remembrance of the 
land whence they came. 
All his effects, arms, 
clothes and the like, are 
then suspended from a 
pole or the branch of a 
tree overshadowing the 
grave. But on the death of a poor woman all her little 
children are buried with her to save them from further suffering. 
They have a strange notion of a ghostly survival after death, a 
spectre which takes the form of a dog with ostrich legs, and the 
sight of which is fatal to the living. In case of illness the Hill 
Damara women lop off a joint or two of their little finger, and if 
that fails they send for the magician, who inverts a milk-pail on 
the breast of the patient and bangs it with a stick, shouting and 
capering round and round to scare the demon of sickness. H^ 




Photo by Mr. W. C. Palgrave, in the collection of the 
Royal Geographical Society 

FIG. 8l. — HILL DAMARA 

Bantu of Hottentot speech 



The African Negroes and Negritos 139 

then takes the pail, blows into it, and always finds a clot of blood, 
a scrap of flesh, or a bone, which is supposed to be extracted 
from the patient, and is buried in the ground, when he is sure to 
recover. 



The Bushmex and Hottentots 

There is good reason to believe that both of these races, who 
are now confined to the south-west corner of the continent— mainly 
Bechu^aland, German 
South-west Africa, and 
Cape Colony — formerly 
ranged as far north as 
Lake Tanganyika and 
even Victoria Nyanza. 
In the Kwa-Kokue dis- 
trict west of Blount 
Kilimanjaro dwell the 
WasaJidawi people who 
are not Bantus, but 
show distinct Hottentot 
physical characters, and 
speak a language full 
of clicks like that of 
the Bushmen. Even 
the prefix Kiva answers 
to the Hottentot postfix 
qua, as in Kora-qua, 
JVama-qua, meaning 
"men," "people." 
Rounded stones with a 
hole in the centre like 
those used by the Bushmen for weighting their digging-sticks have 
been picked up in the Tanganyika and Xyasa lands, and widely 
diffused geographical terms attest the former presence of these 
primitive races all over South Africa from the Zambesi to Xatal 
and the Cape. At present full-blood Hottentots are chiefly confined 
to Great Namaqualand, those of Cape Colony — Griquas, Koraquas, 
Gonaquas — being all Hottentot-Boer, or Hottentot-Bantu half-breeds 
of Dutch speech. Here the tribal organisation ceased to exist in 
1 810, when the last Hottentot chief was replaced by a European 




Photo by Mr. W. Hermann 

FIG. 82. — A BDSHMAN YOUTH 
Note the tufted hair and triangular face 



14° The "World's Peoples 

Magistrate. South of the Orange River there are scarcely 180,000 
altogether, and of these the great majority are half-castes employed 
by the whites as menials in various capacities (Fig. 83). 

Although their ethnical relations have not yet been clearly deter- 
mined, most observers regard the Bushmen and Hottentots as 
fundamentally connected both in physical type and speech, the 
Bushmen being perhaps the primitive stock, the Hottentots a cross 
between them and the Negroid Bantus. Both have a yellowish 
colour distinguishing them from the true Negro, very prominent 
cheek-bones giving the face a triangular shape, and the remarkable 
tablier and steatopygia of the women. In other respects the 
Hottentots are relatively taller (5 ft. 4 in. and 4 ft. 8 in. respectively), 
with feeble muscular development, very broad flat nose, slightly 
oblique and deep-sunk eyes set wide apart, pointed chin, large 
lobeless ears, large mouth with thick pouting lips, projecting jaws, 
very long head with low cranial capacity (1299 c.c.) and tufted black 
woolly hair (Fig. 82). The " Hottentot Venus " was really a Bushman 
woman who " had a way of pouting her lips just like the Orang-utan. 
Her movements had something abrupt and fantastic like those of 
an ape ; her lips were monstrously large. I have never seen a 
human head more like an ape's than that of this woman " (Cuvier). 

The Bushman language is distinguished beyond all others by 
the so-called " clicks," inarticulate sounds unpronounceable by 
Europeans, of which there are as many as nine, perhaps more. Of 
these four passed into the remotely related Hottentot, and three into 
the wholly unconnected Zulu-Xosa. 

Before the advent of the whites the Khol-Khoin, " Men of Men," 
as the Hottentots call themselves, were rude stock-breeders with a 
rudimentary tribal organisation and some crude religious notions, 
whereas the Bushmen have always been typical nomad hunters, with 
no tribal institutions and apparently no religious beliefs. Even the 
family tie has become extremely loose, and in fact they stand almost 
at the lowest level of culture compatible with existence. But some 
recent observers have suggested that the Bushmen may have 
suffered degradation in their present environment, vyhere they have 
been hunted down by Boers and Bechuanas alike, and where they 
find little to live upon except game, snakes, lizards, locusts, roots, 
berries, and bulbs. At times they pass several days without food, 
on which, when found, they gorge themselves, five persons devouring 
a whole zebra in a couple of hours. Their weapons are the bow 




'-f.:- ^ . 



FIG. bj. — A BUSHMAN AND HIS FAMILY 
These are semi-civilised, as shown by their European dress 



142 The World's Peoples 

and poisoned arrow ; their dress the raw hides of wild beasts ; their 
dwellings the cave, rock-shelters, or a kind of "nest" formed by 
bending round the foliage of the bosje (bush), whence their name. 

Supporters of the theory of decadence point to two remarkable 
qualities — a considerable sense of pictorial art and an astonishingly 
rich oral folklore — such as is met with amongst no other primitive 
peoples. Their artistic taste is shown by the rock-paintings and 
drawings of men and animals true to life which are found in their 
caves and recall similar scenes of the Palaeolithic cavemen in the 
south of France. Some are caricatures rudely but spiritedly drawn 
in black paint ; while others represent fights and hunts, or figures 
and incidents among natives and whites, or even suggest actual 
portraiture with correct perspective and foreshortening. The folklore 
comprises myths, legends, fables, and especially animal stories in 
which the animals talk each with its proper click, or else use the 
ordinary clicks in some way peculiar to themselves. In the Cape 
Town Library there are no less than eighty-four thick MS. volumes 
of such Bushman literature. 

These folklore and animal tales are extremely interesting from 
the fact that they seem like still surviving reminiscences of the 
childhood of mankind, when the distinction between man and 
animals was not yet clearly understood, and when the real nature 
of death was not yet realised. The Bushman, remarks one observer, 
could make no distinction between man and beast, and only knew 
that a buffalo could shoot just as well as a man with a bow and 
arrow if he had any. Bearing this in mind, the reader will be 
able to follow the train of thought running through the following 
myth about Cagn and his surroundings, which might otherwise 
seem so childish and incoherent. At the same time this view 
of the case would appear to be fatal to the theory of decadence 
from a higher state, since it represents the Bushmen rather as 
children still in their teens : 

Cagn was the first in the world ; he gave orders and caused 
all things to come forth ; he made the sun, the moon, stars, wind, 
and mountains. His wife's name was Coti. He had two sons. 
The elder was a chief, and his name was Cogaz ; the name of the 
younger was Gewi. There were three great chiefs, Cagn, Cogaz 
and Quanciquchad (hereinafter printed " Q. ") who were very strong, 
but Cagn gave his orders through the other two. Cagn's wife 
Coti took her husband's knife and used it to sharpen a digging- 



The African Negrozs and Negritos 



143 



stick, and she dug roots to eat. When Cagn found her she had 

lost his knife ; he scolded her and said misfortune Vould come 

upon her. Then she got a h'ttle eland calf and brought it up in 

the fields and told her husband. She said she did not know what 

kind of child it was, and he ran to see it ; and when he came back 

he ordered Coti 

to rub kanna 

(magic) that he 

might learn what 

it was. She did 

so, and he went 

and spread the 

magic charm 

over the animal, 

and asked it : 

"Are you 
this animal? 
Are you the 
animal ? " 

But it re- 
mained silent, 
till he asked : 

" Are you an 
eland?" 

Then it said, 
" Yes." 

Then he 
clasped it in his 
arms, went off 
and brought a 
calabash in 
which he put it, 
and took it to a 
secluded cleft in 

the rock which was surrounded by hills and precipices. Here he 
let it grow up. 

At the same time Cagn made all animals and things, and made 
them useful for man, and he made snares and weapons. He made 
the partridge and the striped mouse, and made the wind ; and 
he took three sticks, sharpened them, and threw one at the eland 




Photo by Mr. W. Hermann, Cape Town 
FIG. 84.— BUSH 



144 



The Wofld^s Peoples 



and it ran off; and he called it back and missed with all of the 
sticks, and each time he called it back again. Then he went to 
his nephew to get poison for the arrows, and he was three days 
away. 

While he was away his sons Cogaz and Gewi went out with 
young people to hunt, and came upon the eland which their father 

had hidden. But 
they knew nothing 
about it ; for them it 
was a new animal. 
Its horns had just 
grown, and they tried 
to surround and 
stealthily shoot it. 
But it always broke 
through the circle, 
and when it got back 
it lay down in the 
same place. At last, 
while it was asleep, 
Gewi, who could 
shoot well, stuck it 
through, and they cut 
it up and took the 
flesh and blood home. 
But after cutting it 
up they saw Cagn's 
traps and snares ; and 
they knew he had 
made them, and were 
afraid. 

But on the third day Cagn came back, and he saw the blood 
on the ground where the eland was killed ; and he was very angry, 
and when he came home he told Gewi he would punish him for his 
audacity and disobedience, tore his nose off and flung it into the 
fire. But he said, " No, I won't do this," and put his nose on 
again and said : 

" Now try to make good again the harm you have done, for 
you have destroyed the elands when I was making them fit for 
use." 




Photo by Mr. W. C. Palgra 
Geographical Society 



Jm Cullnction of the Royal 



FIG. 85. — DAMARA 
Hottentot Bantu half-breed 



The African Negroes and Negritos T45 

So he ordered him to take some of the eland's blood, put it 
in a pot, and stir it with a small Bushman stick which he turned 
round in the blood, and it was changed into snakes. But Cagn 
told him he must not make such horrid things ; so he stirred again 
and made hartebeests. 

Then Cagn said : 

" I am not satisfied ; this is not yet what I want. You can do 
nothing at all. Throw the blood away. Coti, my wife, clean this 
pot, and bring some more of the blood and stir it." 

She did so and added the fat from the heart, and then it 
became male elands, and Cagn said : " You see how you have 
destroyed the elands," and he drove them out. Then they stirred 
again and made a great many elands ; and the earth was covered 
with them, and he told Gewi to go out and hunt them and try 
to kill one. And Gewi ran and did his best, but came back tired 
and worn out, and next day the same. Then Cagn sent Cogaz to 
drive them towards him, and Cagn shouted and the elands came 
running close behind him, and he hurled throwing-spears and 
killed three bulls. Then he sent Cogaz, who killed two, and Gewi, 
who killed one. 

There were giants called Oobe who had battle-axes, and were 
cannibals, who cut off men's heads, killed the women and sucked 
their blood. Cagn sent Cogaz to rescue a woman from them 
and lent him his tooth, for it was toothache that made him send 
Cogaz. Cogaz went, and when he came back Cagn saw the dust 
and sent the little bird which says tee-tee, but it said nothing. Then 
he sent another bird, the ti/iki-ti?iki, and it brought back no 
news. Then he sent a third, the qeip, a black-and-white bird 
which sings in the early morning ; and he rubbed kanna on its 
bill, and it flew in the dust, and came back with the news that 
the giants were coming. 

The giants seized Cogaz several times, but he had only to apply 
Cagn's tooth, when he grew so tall that they were unable to reach 
up to him. He generally cooked his food up there, and then he 
used to blow on a reed flute, and this put them to sleep. At 
last he killed some of them with poisoned arrows, and Cagn drove 
them off and killed them because they were cannibals ; and he 
took off" his kaross (cloak) and sandals and changed them into 
hounds and wild dogs, and set them at the Oob^ giants and 
destroyed them. 



146 



The Wofld*s Peoples 



[These Oobe were no doubt the tall Bantus who invaded the 
Bushman territory two or three thousand years ago, and were 
all at that time cannibals, as so many still are.] 

The head-chief Q. lived alone. He had no wife, as the women 
would not have him. Some little boys were sent to cut sticks 




From " The Uganda ProtLttoraU ' \ 1 tiiiu^swii oj bii Haii) Jthn ,011, fj- C M G , K C B. 

FIG. 86. — A GROUP OF BAMBUTE PYGMIES 
Momad hunters who attack the elephant with poisoned arrows 

for the women, and one complained because her stick was 
crooked and the others straight. That night she dreamed 
that a baboon came to take a young girl for his wife, the 
one that had refused Q. Next day when she was digging 
alone the ape came in a great rage, for he had overheard the 
remark about the crooked stick and thought she was jeering 



The African Negroes and Negritos 



147 



at his crooked tail, and 
and told the girl about 
Q. Then the girl sank 
into the ground and 
came up again in an- 
other place, and this 
she did three times 
until she reached Q.'s 
home. He asked why 
s h e came, and she 
said she was frightened 
at the ape. Then he 
lifted her on his head 
and hid her in his 
hair, and the ape smelled 
where she had sunk in 
the ground, and so 
came to Q. with his 
k i r r i (throwing-club), 
and asked, " Where is 
my wife ? " Q. said he 
had not got her. Then 
the ape quarrelled with 
Q. and fought him. 
But Q. conquered him 
and struck him down 
with his own kirri. 
Then Q. banished him 
to the mountains, say- 
ing : "Go and eat 
scorpions and roots, 
which are good enough 
for baboons." And 
he went awa}-, shrieking, 
and his shrieks were 
heard by all the women 
in the place where he 



threw a stone at her. She ran home 
her dream, and told her to escape to 




From " Tiu _ . Protectorate," b\ permission of 
Sir Harry Johr.slon, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. 

FIG. 87. — A PYGMY WOM.\X OF THE BABIRA 

GROUP 

Very fine Negrito type 

came from, and so all the apes were 



banished to the hills where they now are. 



148 



The "World's Peoples 



The Negritos 

We have seen that the African pygmies had probably reached 
Europe during the Stone Ages, and were certainly frequent visitors 

at the Courts of the 
Pharaohs. At pre- 
sent they are all 
denizens of the 
woodlands, every- 
where keeping to the 
shelter of the Welle, 
1 1 u r i, Ruwenzori, 
Congo, and Ogoway 
forests within the 
tropics. To this 
may be due the fact 
that they are not 
black but of a 
yellowish colour, 
with reddish-brown 
woolly head, some- 
what hairy body, and 
extremely low 
stature ranging from 
about 3 ft. (Lugard) 
to perhaps 4 ft. 6 in. 
at most. The hir- 
suteness and dwarf- 
ish size were already 
noticed two thou- 
sand five hundred 
years ago by the 
Carthaginian A d - 
m i r a 1 Hanno, to 
whom we owe the 
term " gorilla," applied by him, not to the anthropoid ape so named 
by Du Chaillu, but to certain hairy little people seen by him on the 
west coast — probably the ancestors of the dwarfs still surviving 
in the Ogoway district. 

Here they are called Abongo and Obongo, and elsewhere are 




From " The Uganda Protectorate," bv permission of 
Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. 

FIG. 88. — TWO BAMBUTE PYGMIES 
Roam the East Congo woodlands 



The African Negroes and Negritos 149 

known by different names — Tikitiki, Akka, or Wochua in the 
Welle region, Dume in Gallaland, Wandorobo in Masailand (Fig. 65), 
Batwa south of the Congo, and many others. Dr. Ludwig Wolf con- 
nects the Batwa both with the northern Akka and the southern Bush- 
men, all being the scattered fragments of a primeval dwarfish race to be 
regarded as the true aborigines of equatorial Africa. They live exclu- 
sively by the chase and the preparation of palm-wine, hence are 
regarded by their Bantu friends as benevolent little people whose 
special mission is to provide the surrounding tribes with game and 
palm-wine in exchange for manioc, maize, and bananas. Many are 
distinguished by sharp powers of observation, amazing talent for 
mimicry, and a good memory. Junker describes the comic ways 
and nimble action of an Akka who imitated with marvellous 
fidelity the peculiarities of persons he had once seen — Moslems 
at prayer, Emin Pasha with his " four eyes " (spectacles), another 
in a towering rage, storming and abusing everybody, and Junker 
himself, "whom he took off to the life, rehearsing down to the 
minutest details, and with surprising accuracy, my anthropometric 
performance when measuring his body at Rumbek four years 
before." 

The Vaalpens 

Along the banks of the Limpopo between Transvaal and Southern 
Rhodesia there are scattered a few small groups of an extremely 
primitive people who are generally confounded with the Bushmen, 
but differ in some important respects from that race. They are 
the " Earthmen " of some writers, but their real name is Kattca, 
though called by their neighbours either Ma-Sanva (" Bad People '") 
or Vaalpetis ("Grey Paunches"), from the khaki colour acquired 
by their bodies from creeping on all fours into their underground 
hovels. But the true colour is almost a pitch black, and as they 
are only about 4 ft. high they are quite distinct both from the 
tall Bantus and the yellowish Hottentot-Bushmen. 

For the Zulus they are mere " dogs " or " vultures," and are 
certainly the most degraded of all the aborigines, being undoubtedly 
cannibals, eating their own aged and infirm like some of the 
Amazonian tribes. Their habitations are holes in the ground, rock- 
shelters, or caves, or lately a icw hovels of mud and foliage at 
the foot of the hills. Of their speech nothing is known except 
that it is absolutely distinct both from the Bantu and the Bushman. 



150 The World*s Peoples 

There are no arts or industries of any kind, not even any weapons 
beyond those procured in exchange for ostrich feathers, skins, or 
ivory. But they can make fire, and are thus able to cook the 
offal thrown to them by the Boers in return for their help in 
skinning the captured game. Whether they have any religious 
ideas it is impossible to say, all intercourse with the surrounding 
peoples being restricted to barter carried on with gesture language, 
for nobody has ever yet mastered their tongue. A "chief" is 
spoken of, but he is merely a headman who presides over the 
little family groups of from thirty to fifty (there are no tribes 
properly so called), and whose purely domestic functions are 
acquired, not by heredity, but by personal worth, that is, physical 
strength. Altogether the Kattea is perhaps the most perfect 
embodiment of the pure savage still anywhere surviving. 

For the Malagasy see Chap. VI. They are a Negroid people 
(Fig. 141, A Sakalava Group of the East Coast) of Malayo-Polynesian 
speech. 



CHAPTER V 

MOXGOLIC OR YELLOW DIVISION 

Primeval Home, the Tibetan Plateau (p. 151) — Early Migratory Movements 
(p. 152) — The Akkado-Sumerians (p. 152) — The Hyperboreans : Chukcki ; 
Yukaghirs ; Korjaks ; Gilyaks ; Kamchadales (p. 154) — The Mongolo- 
Tatars : Mongols proper ; Tunguses and Shamanism; Manchus (p. 156) — 
The Koreans and Japanese (pp. 163-5) — The Turki Peoples (p. 172) — 
The Yakuts, Kirghizes, and Turkomans (p. 17S) — The Ugro-Finns (p. 181). 

Primeval Home 

TO the view advanced at p. 18, that the Tibetan plateau was 
the primeval home of the MongoHc division, no serious 
difficulty is presented by the present configuration of the land. 
That region, now cut off by the great Himalayan ramparts, could 
easily be reached in late Pliocene times, when early man began to 
range northwards from his Malaysian cradle. We know that the 
lacustrine plateau, now the highest on the globe, was still a marine 
bed in the Chalk Age, that is, towards the close of the Secondary 
epoch, and since then it has been gradually raised to its present 
level. Somewhat later the Tertiary era witnessed the slow upheaval 
of the Himalayas with their western and eastern extensions, the 
Suleiman and x\rakan ranges, which did not attain their present 
altitude probably before the Pleistocene age. Consequently the 
way was open from Malaysia to the heart of the continent at the 
very time when Pliocene man began to spread northwards over 
the Asiatic mamland. In Tibet as then constituted, were found 
all the natural conditions favourable to the development of a new 
variety of the human, as of so many other varieties of animal species 
■ — dog or wolf {lupus laniger), fox {vulpes Jiavescens), ox (yak), horse 
(kiang), besides two or more peculiai forms of deer, antelopes, sheep 
and goats, in fact a fauna more distinct than in any other continental 
area of equal extent. Here therefore the Pleistocene precursor 



152 The World's Peoples 

also may well have assumed those physical characters which con- 
stitute the typical Mongol as described at p. i8. 

Early Migrations V 

From this central tableland the early Mongol groups spread 1 
during the Stone Ages in all directions over the continent, where / 
were formed several sub-varieties, such as the now extinct Akkado- I 
Sumerians of Babylonia ; the nearly extinct Hyperboreans of North I 
Siberia ; the Motigolo-Tatars stretching from Japan across Central i 
Asia to Europe ; the Tibeto-Indo-Chinese of Tibet, Indo-China, and I 
China ; and the Oceanic Mongols (Fig. 89) of Malaysia, Madagascar, I 
the Philippines, and Formosa, We thus see that this great division » 
of mankind has occupied nearly the whole of the Asiatic continent 
since the Pleistocene era, and consequently takes the name of 
Homo Asiaticus — " Asiatic Man " in a very special sense. 

The Akkado-Sumerians 

Although not yet placed beyond all doubt, the Mongol origin 
of these founders of the ancient Babylonian civilisation is the view 
now generally held by those most competent to form an opinion 
on this obscure question. The argument is mainly linguistic, and 
it has been shown that the language of the early Cuneiform texts 
has strong affinities especially with the Ugro-Finnish branch of 
the Mongol stock language. There are the same vowel harmonies ; 
similar forms of nouns, numerals, pronouns, and verbs, and a large 
number of identical words, all of which cannot be accidental. The 
Akkads, or " Black Heads," are generally located on the northern 
uplands, the Sumerians on the lowland plains about the head of 
the Persian Gulf, which at that time penetrated over one hundred 
miles farther inland than at present. But both came at an early 
date into the closest contact with Assyrian and Amorite Semites, 
by whom they were eventually conquered and merged in a single 
Semitic nationality, so that the original Mongol element has long 
been effaced throughout Mesopotamia. During the process of 
fusion the Semites borrowed their Cuneiform script, their literature, 
and general culture from the Sumerians, and this explains the 
striking resemblance that exists between their common myths of 
the Creation, the Deluge, and other legendary matter. Thus an 
inscription found at Agade records how a royal princess, mother 



154 The World's Peoples 

of Sargon I. (about 3800 B.C.), concealed his birth by placing 
him in a rush basket closed with bitumen and sending him adrift 
on the stream, from which he was rescued by Akki the water- 
carrier, just as Moses was rescued by the Egyptian daughter of 
the Pharaoh. So also " Chedorlaomer, King of Elam," routed 
by Abraham (Gen. xiv.) has been identified with Khudur-Lagamar, 
King of Elam, who conquered the Akkads and extended his sway 
westwards to Syria in Abraham's time. 



The Hyperboreans 

Before the development of their numerous pantheon, with its 
trinity of Merodach, Ea, and Anu, gods of the sea, land, and sky, 
the Babylonians were pure animists, attributing a soul to such objects 
as trees, the winds, stones, rocks, mountains, rain, the running 
waters, the sea and all the monsters that therein dwell. Such are 
still their remote kindred, the so-called "Hyperboreans" — Chukchi, 
Yukaghirs, Koryaks, Gilyaks, Kainchadales, and others — of North- 
east Siberia — who have recently been again studied and described 
by the various members of the Jesup expedition. A detailed 
description would here be out of place; but reference may be 
made to the curious birch-bark style of writing in which the 
Yukaghirs record incidents of the chase and young folk carry on 
their amatory correspondence. This primitive writing system is 
carved with a sharp knife out of soft fresh birch-bast, and with 
such crude materials a disconsolate maiden writes to her parting 
lover, " Thou goest hence and I bide alone, for thy sake still to 
weep and moan." Another, with a touch of jealousy, " Thou goest 
forth thy Russian flame to seek, who stands 'twixt thee and me, 
thy heart from me apart to keep. In a new home joy wilt thou 
find, while I must ever grieve, as thee I bear in mind, tho' 
another yet there be who loveth me." Or again, "Each youth 
his mate doth find ; my fate alone it is of him to dream who to 
another wedded is, and I must fain contented be, if only he forget 
not me." And with a note of wail, " Thou hast gone hence, and 
of late it seems this place for me is desolate ; and I, too, forth 
must fare, that so the memories old I may forget, and from the 
pangs thus flee, of those bright days which here I once enjoyed 
with thee." Although now reduced to scarcely 1,500, the Yukaghirs 



Mongolic or Yellow Division 



155 



were formerly a numerous people, and the popular saying that 
their hearths on the banks of the Kolyma at one time outnumbered 
the stars in the sky seems a reminiscence of more prosperous days. 

Of the neighbouring Chukchi there are two branches, the 
"Fishing Chukchi" with permanent stations along the shores of 
the Arctic Ocean, and the " Reindeer Chukchi," who roam 
the inland districts, shifting their camping-grounds with the 
seasons. Although 
nominal Christians, 
they continue t o 
sacrifice animals to 
the spirits of the 
rivers and mountains, 
and also believe in 
an after-life, but only 
for those who die a 
violent death. Hence 
the eagerness with 
which the infirm and 
aged submit, when 
the time comes, to 
be despatched by 
their friends : " The 
doomed one takes a 
lively interest in the 
proceedings, and 
often assists in the 
preparations for his 
own death. The exe- 
cution is always pre- 
ceded by a feast, 
where seal and walrus 

meat are greedily devoured, and whiskey consumed till all are 
intoxicated. A spontaneous burst of singing and the muffled roll 
of walrus-hide drums then herald the fatal moment. At a given 
signal a ring is formed by the relations and friends ; the executioner 
(usually the victim's son or brother) then steps forward, and placing 
his right foot behind the back of the condemned, slowly strangles 
him to death with a walrus thong " (H. de Windt). 

Of the Kamchadales, whose real name is Itclme, we read that 




FIG. 90.— GILYAK 
Bear-worshipper of the Lower Amur 



156 The "World's Peoples 

they are now mostly Russified in speech and religion, but still secretly 
immolate a dog now and then to pacify the malevolent beings 
who throw obstacles in the way of their hunting and fishing 
expeditions. Noteworthy is the cleanliness of their houses, the 
walls, roof, and floor being planked over with birch boards, while 
the windows are draped with chintz curtains and the walls hung 
with pictures from the American and English illustrated papers; 
but the doors are so low that ingress has to be effected on all fours. 
A branch of the Tungus race are the bear-worshipping Gilyaks 
of the Amur delta, whom Mr. Landsell regarded as mentally the 
lowest of any people he had met in Siberia. Despite the zeal of 
the Russian missionaries, they remain obdurate Shamanists, and 
even fatahsts, so that "if one falls into the water the others will 
not help him out, on the plea that they would thus be opposing 
a higher power, who wills that he should perish. . . . The soul of 
the Gilyak is supposed to pass at death into his favourite dog, 
which is accordingly fed with choice food; and when the spirit 
has been prayed by the Shaman out of the dog, the animal is 
sacrificed on the master's grave. The soul is then represented as 
passing underground, lighted and guided by its own sun and moon, 
and continuing to lead there, in its spiritual abode, the same manner 
of life and pursuits as in the flesh" (Landsell). The Gilyaks and 
all the surrounding tribes wear a peculiar costume made from the 
skins of two kinds of salmon, hence are called by the Chinese 
" Fish-skin-clad-people." The skin is stripped off very cleverly, 
then pounded with a mallet to remove the scales, and so made 
supple. The material thus prepared is waterproof, hence is also 
used for making bags and other purposes. One of their chief gods 
is the bear, who when captured in winter is kept a long time in 
confinement, and, when well fattened, torn to pieces and devoured 
with much feasting and jubilation. Some make many excuses for 
thus maltreating him, explaining that it is for his good and 
their own. 



The Mongolo-Tatars 

This great branch of the Mongol division is not the most 

numerous, but by far the most widespread, since, proceeding 

westwards, its various sub-groups occupy the whole of Japan, 



Mongolia or Yellow Division 



157 



Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, most of Siberia, Eastern and Western 
Turkestan, North Irania, and Asia Minor, besides considerable 
sections of Caucasia, the Balkan Peninsula, East Russia, Finland, 
Lapland, and Hungary. There are two well-marked primary 
sections : the Mongols proper — with their numerous offshoots, 
Tunguses, Manchus, Koreans, Japanese, and others — in the east ; 




Phoio by M. F'unc Fau, Fa,^^ 

FIG. 91. — K.^LML'KS, WESTERN MONGOLS 
Are full-blood Mongols of Zungaria and the Lower Volga 

and in the west the still more numerous Turki peoples, Uzbegs 
Turkomans, Kirghizes, Osmanli with the aberrant Ugro-Finns, all 
wrongly grouped as "Tatars," or "Tartars." Tata (plural Tatar) 
was the name, not of a Turki but of a Mongol people who were 
fused into one nation by Jenghiz Khan, a Mongol on his father's 
side, and a Tata on his mother's. Tatar, corrupted to Tartar 
through association with the Tartarus of classic mythology, prevailed 
in the west, because the Tatas generally formed the van of the 



158 The WofId*s Peoples 

Mongol expeditions, and thus it happened that Tatar was gradually 
transferred to the western section whose proper name always has 
been and still is Ttirkt. Hence the collective name of the whole 
division should be Mongolo-Turki, or the alternative geographical 
expression Ural-Altaic. 

Although the Mongols proper are all physically very much alike 
(see p. 1 8), they form three historically distinct groups — Kalmuks 
in the west (Zungaria, Kashgaria, Astrakhan) ; Sharras in the east 
(Gobi, Koko-nor, Ala-shan and inshan heights); and the Siberian 
Buryats on both sides of Lake Baikal. Mostly nominal Buddhists, 
they are still at heart nature-worshippers and Shamanists, that is 
to say, they appeal to the deified forces of nature — hills and valleys, 
rivers and lakes, sky, rain, and thunder-storm — not directly but 
through the Shaman, who is their intercessor, their medicine-man, 
priest, and magician, all in one. In Mongolia all the still and 
running waters are worshipped as gods, and legends are associated 
with every mountain, whose highest peak always bears the title of 
khan or king. One much-feared divinity, the " Goat Face," is 
figured with the head of a goat, or else of an ox, wearing a crown 
of human skulls, vomiting flames, and in his twenty hands grasping 
human limbs or instruments of torture. He is painted a dark blue 
and his wife a light blue, and the people themselves are "Blue 
Mongols," because azure is the sacred colour of the sky, while they 
are the lords of the earth. 

But if they at one time ruled from the China seas to Europe, 
all recent observers are unanimous in describing them as now a 
decadent people, who have lost all political coherence and reverted 
to the state of barbarism that prevailed before they became world- 
wide conquerors under Jenghiz Khan and his immediate successors. 
As a nation they have even become poltroons, and are now extremely 
indolent and apathetic, while their filthy habits and disgusting 
gluttony pass all belief. In burials the decent Chinese rites are 
followed for the nobles, who are placed in coffins, before which 
the family sacrifices are offered at the prescribed times. The 
Buddhist prelates and rich lamas also are cremated with solemn 
obsequies, and their ashes covered with little mounds or cairns. 
But the poor lamas and all the common folk are thrown to the 
dogs or to the wild beasts or carrion birds, as in Tibet. Hence 
the ravens, called by the Chinese the " graves of the Mongols," 
seldom quit the nomad steppe lands where they fatten on human 



Mongolic or Yellow Division 



159 



remains, while the dogs habitually follow the funeral processions 
of the low classes beyond the camping-grounds. All are still nomad 
stock-breeders, depending on their horses, camels, oxen, and fat- 
tailed sheep for their sustenance. Tea and kumiss or mare's milk 
are the only drinks, as they never touch water, to which are attributed 
malignant effects. They are endowed with robust constitutions 
capable of resisting the extremes of temperature and enduring 
hardships which would kill most Europeans. But although they 
will remain 

fifteen hours at '^ W ' ^ 

a stretch in the 
saddle, they will 
complain of 
having to walk a 
few yards from 
their tent, and 
even feel 
ashamed to be 
seen on foot. 
" Our empire," 
they say, " was 
won on horse- 
back," and on 
horseback they 
may be said still 
to pass their lives. 
Hence they de- 
spise the dance 
and all foot ex- 
ercises, but dis- 
play extraordi- 
nary skill in 
every kind of 
horsemanship. 
They are ex- 
cessively fond of 
racing, in which 

young and old all take part, and it is on record that nearly four 
thousand riders once competed for the prize at a great race held 
in honour of a much venerated Mongol Buddha. 




;^<S£'9XtSK>l' 



Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufddt 

FIG. 92. — TWO REINDEER TUNGUSES 
Range over the East Siberian steppe-lands 



i6o 



The World's Peoples 



The Tunguses 



-»*fcaf»~r;-SS^!!¥S':^^iw*«>^^ 



East and north of the Mongol domain proper the vast region 
comprising the Amur basin and most of East Siberia is occupied 

by the kindred 
Tungus family, 
of whom the 
historical 
Manchus are 
the most 
famous 
branch. The 
Tunguses 
themselves, 
who are thinly 
scattered over 
an area of 
perhaps a 
million square 
miles, are 
fishers on the 
Arctic sea- 
board, hunters 
and trappers 
in the East 
S i b e r i a n 
woodlan ds, 
and for the 
most part 
settled agri- 
culturists and 
stock-breeders 
in the fertile 
valleys of 
the Amur 
and its affluents ; hence the current Russian expressions Horse, 
Cattle, Eeindeer {¥\g. 92), Dog, Steppe, Forest, and Fishing Tunguses. 
The type, although essentially Mongol ic in its somewhat flat features, 
prominent cheek-bones, slant eyes, lank hair, yellowish colour 




Photo by J. Dazario, Moscow 

FIG. 93. — TATARS OF SIBERIA 
A degraded group of the Obi basin, West Siberia 



Mongolic or Yellow Division i6i 

and low stature, seems to betray admixture of a higher strain 
in its shapely frame, active figure, and quick intelligent expression. 
To this higher strain of early Caucasians, arriving from Europe 
during the Stone Age, may perhaps be credited the great 
moral qualities by which the Tunguses are distinguished above 
most primitive peoples. "Full of vivacity and natural impulse, 
always cheerful under most depressing conditions, respecting both 
themselves and others, of gentle manners and courteous address, 
obliging without servility, unaffectedly proud, scorning false- 
hood, and indifferent to suffering and death, the Tunguses are 
unquestionably an heroic people " (Reclus). 

A few attend the Orthodox service, others claim to be Buddhists, 
but the great bulk of the people are still Shamanists, and the 
very word Shaman is said to be of Tungus origin. Although 
often called priests and sometimes acting as such and taking part 
in the public sacrifices, the shamans are rather medicine-men, 
healing by magic processes, or soothsayers, uttering oracles through 
communion with the invisible world, or exorcists with power to 
expel demons and control or even coerce the good and evil spirits 
on behalf of their votaries. The system, of which there are many 
phases reflecting the difl'erent cultural states of the people, still 
prevails amongst all the Siberian aborigines, and generally amongst 
all the uncivilised Ural-Altaic and North American natives. It 
does not constitute a special caste like the Christian hier- 
archies, since some are hereditary, some elected, while everything 
depends on their personal merits, on their greater or less pro- 
ficiency in the performance of their functions. This of course 
gives rise to much jealousy as between the " Whites '' and the 
" Blacks," that is, those who deal with the good and bad spirits 
respectively. Their wranglings often result in bloodshed, and 
amongst the Buryats the two factions throw axes at each other, 
the duel generally ending in the death of a black or a white. 
Many, perhaps all, claim miraculous powers, and often act up 
to their pretensions by performing almost incredible conjuring 
tricks, in order to impose on the credulity of the ignorant, or 
outbid their rivals for the public favour. Richard Johnson, of 
the Chancelour expedition to Muscovy, records how he saw a 
Samoyad shaman stab himself with a sword, then make the sword 
red-hot and thrust it through his body, so that the point pro- 
truded at the back and Johnson was able to touch it with h's 

1 1 



i62 The World^s Peoples 

finger. Then they bound the wizard tight with a reindeer rope, 
and went through some performances curiously like those of the 
Davenport Brothers and other modern paid mediums. Though 
yielding to higher influences in some places, the system still holds 
its ground in the more remote districts, where even the Moslem 
and Buddhist preachers have to become shamans in order to win 
the confidence of the natives. 

Of the historical Manchus the authentic records date certainly 
from the twelfth century, when the renowned Khitan warriors who 
had reduced a great part of China (Liao dynasty, 925-1125) were 
vanquished by the Niu-chi ( Yu-chi) ancestors of the Manchu race. 
Under the national hero Aishiu-Gioro they acquired great power 
in the Amur lands, and he may be regarded as the true founder 
of the Manchu dynasty, since it was in his time (about 1350) that 
this name came into general use. After the overthrow of the 
Chinese Ming dynasty by a rebel chief (1643), the Manchus were 
invited by the imperialists to restore order in Pekin, where they 
have remained ever since. 

But this very political expansion, this assumption of the imperial 
r61e in China, has brought about the ruin of the Manchu race in the 
homeland. The constant drain of its best manhood to support the 
dynasty and supply trustworthy garrisons for all the strongholds of 
the empire, has sapped the vitality of the nation at the fountain- 
head, and the rich alluvial plains of Manchuria have now been 
mainly repeopled by industrious Chinese immigrants. Thus 
Manchuria has poured itself into China for a vainglorious object, 
and China has reversed the process for the more practical purpose 
of garnering the fruits of the earth, and now " the Manchu 
nationality is destroyed beyond recovery, and except a few nomad 
groups nobody speaks Manchu" (Abbe Hue). 

Like its Mongol sister, Manchu is a cultivated language, and 
both are written in a modified form of the Uiguric (Turki) script, 
which is based on the Syriac, introduced by the Nestorian mission- 
aries in the seventh century. The letters, connected together by 
continuous strokes, are disposed in vertical columns from left to 
right, an arrangement due no doubt to Chinese influence. Both 
languages are typical members of the agglutinating Ural-Altaic 
family, in which an indefinite number of particles are glued 
(agglutinated — postfixed or loosely attached) to an unchangeable 
nominal or verbal root. Then the whole, which may be a very 



Mongolic or Yellow Division 163 

long word of ten or twenty syllables, acquires coherence, unity, by 
the principle of progressive vowel harmony, a kind of vocal con- 
cordance requiring the vowels of all the postfixes to harmonise or 
agree with the unchangeable vowel of the root. If the determining 
or controlling root-vowel is strong, all the following vowels of the 
combination, no matter what its length, must be strong ; if weak — 
weak, and so on. Thus, in Turki the plural postfix is lar with 
adaiii, man : adam-lar, men, but ler with ev^ house : ev-ler, houses ; 
so with bar, go, we have bar-ina-mak, not to go, but with sev, love, 
sev-me-mek, not to love, and so on. Something analogous to this 
is seen in the old Aryan concordance, as in Latin doininus mens, my 
lord ; doinina mea, my lady. 

The Koreans 

In the adjacent Korean Peninsula the Caucasian element is even 
more marked than among the Tunguses. European features — light 
eyes, large nose, hair often brown, full beard, fair and even white 
skin, tall stature — are conspicuous especially amongst the upper 
classes and in the south (Fig. 94). The presence of Neolithic 
Caucasians from the Far West is also attested by their works, 
megalithic structures which look like duplicates of the European 
dolmens and cromlechs. The Koreans take their present name 
from the Koryo dynasty (918-1392 a.d.), which marks the most 
flourishing epoch in the national records. For about five hundred 
years they were the dominant people in North-east Asia ; trade and 
the industrial arts were highly developed, and it was in Korea that 
the Japanese first acquired that skill in porcelain and bronze work 
which they afterwards brought to such great perfection. But after 
the fall of the Koryo dynasty the Koreans, although endowed with 
excellent natural qualities, entered on a long period of decadence, 
and were reduced by constant misrule to a state of degradation and 
barbarism, from which they have not yet recovered. Before the 
reforms introduced after the Japanese war with China (1895-96), 
" the country was eaten up by ofificialism. It is not only that abuses 
without number prevailed, but the whole system of government was 
an abuse, a sea of corruption, without a bottom or a shore, an engine 
of robbery, crushing the life out of all industry " (Mrs. Bishop). 

As in China, Korea possesses two or three state religions, 
ancestor-worship and Buddhism, besides the ethical codes of 



164 



The Wofld^s Peoples 



Confucius and Lao-tse. But no lofty ideals have ever been incul- 
cated, so that it is not perhaps surprising that the Koreans betray 
less of the religious sentiment than almost any other people. This 
strange lack of veneration is shown even in the very children, who 
are often seen kicking about the bronze statuettes of Buddha on the 
public highways. Seul, the capital, is perhaps the only city in the 
world outside Korea which till recently possessed neither temple nor 




Photo by Sir W. C. Hillier, K.C.M.G. 

FIG. 94. — VILLAGE SCENE, KOREA 
White flowing robes and broad-brimmed hats form the national garb 

church. But the primitive ideas still survive; offerings are made 
to the spirits of the forests and mountains ; all natural deaths 
are attributed to the invisible agencies, and there is even a 
" Children's Feast," when all put on new clothes, probably a 
reminiscence of Buddhism. It is also to their credit that, amid 
much moral and material squalor, coarse and repulsive habits, the 
Koreans possess at least the sterling quality of honesty. A recent 



Mongolic or Yellow Division 



i6s 



German traveller tells us that in the villages along his route his effects 
had to remain on the highroads for want of room in the wretched 
little hovels, but he never lost anything, and his watch, after 
passing round for general inspection, always came back to the owner. 




Pkolo by Sir W. C. HUlier, K.C.M.G. 

FIG. 95. — BUDDHIST TRIESl-S OF KORE.\ 
Have fallen on evil days, and are now Kttle respected 



The Japanese 

In the Japanese constitution there enter three distinct elements : 
the Caucasic acquired from the Ebisu (Ainu) aborigines of Hondo ; 
the Mongolic from the mainland through Manchuria and Korea ; 
and the Malayan from Malaysia through the Philippines and 
Formosa. One of the most remarkable peoples in the whole world 
is thus the outcome of the gradual fusion of these elements, a 



1 66 



The WoyId*s Peoples 



process which, according to the national records and traditions, may 
have begun seven or eight hundred years before the new era. At 
least the native chronicles tell us that the present Mikado is the 

one hundred and 



twenty-first in direct 
descent from Jimmu 
Tenno, reputed 
founder of the empire, 
who flourished about 
660 B.C. and was 
fabled to be fifth in 
descent from the Sun- 
Goddess Amaterasu, 
the great divinity of 
the national Shinto 
religion. The 
Mongol physical cha- 
racters are the most 
pronounced, being 
clearly indicated by 
the low stature (5 ft. 
4 or 5 in.), small nose 
with no perceptible 
root, somewhat 
prominent cheek- 
bones, exposed skin 
yellowish brown, in- 
clining to a light fawn 
and certainly less 
yellow than the 
Chinese ; eyes also 
less oblique, but hair 
equally black, lank, 
and quite round in 
cross-section. On 
the other hand the Caucasic factor is shown more in the mental 
qualities, but is also plainly revealed in the surprising light, in fact 
white, colour of the unexposed parts of the body. This important 
feature, overlooked by nearly all observers, has been established by 
Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard, who writes : "In the course of two visits 







Photo by J. TF. McLcUan 

FIG. 96. — JAPANESE WOMAN 
Wears a loose kimono (robe) with wide sleeves 



1 68 



The World*s Peoples 



to Japan I saw many hundreds of naked Japanese, and I was 
struck particularly by the fact that their bodies were whiter than 
those of English men and even English women" {Letter to 
A. H. Keane, Aug. 2, 1895). 

But early man is also represented, as in Korea, by numerous 
dolmens ; by extensive kitchen middens like those of Denmark, 





**^%*! 




1 


f ' '^^P ^ '^fe! 


»,^^^ 






% 



PAoto by 7. W. McLellan 

FIG. 98. — TWO JAPANESE MEN AND A GIRL 
Wear a plain kimono with very narrow obi 



standing twenty to thirty feet above the present sea-level ; by a vast 
number of caves, formerly inhabited, like those of the European 
Palaeolithic men ; and by the pits in the island of Yezo, which were 
occupied ages ago by the so-called Koro-pok-guru, " People of the 
Hollows," who lived in huts built over holes in the ground and may 
have been the ancestors of the present Ainus. 

Eike other peoples the Japanese have their own moral codes ; 




Photo by J. W. McLcllan 



FIG. 99.— A JAPANESE I.AD'Y 



Wears a rich loose kimono with very wide obi (sash) lied in an immense 
bow at tiie back 



1 7° The ^"01*1(^*8 Peoples 

but they stand intellectually at the head of all Mongolic races 
without exception. In this respect they rank with the more 
advanced European nations, being highly intelligent, versatile, 
progressive, quick-witted, and brave to a degree of heroism un- 
surpassed by any other race. The sense of personal honour, so 
feebly developed amongst other Asiatics, became a passion under 
the mediaeval feudal system, and led to astounding acts of devotion 
and self-sacrifice of almost daily occurrence. This sentiment, 
combined with a strange contempt of death, led to the peculiar 
institution of the hara-kiri or " happy despatch," a cruelly refined 
method of self-immolation now falling into desuetude and abolished 
as an official punishment. But beneath many genial and amiable 
qualities there is often betrayed a spirit of treachery and revenge, 
which will for years pursue its victim under the cloak of the 
most seemingly cordial friendship. Unbridled licentiousness, a 
mercenary spirit, and lack of fair dealing in business matters are 
amongst the darker shades of the picture. But their better parts, 
taken in connection with an intense loyalty and a blind, almost 
fanatical spirit of patriotism, sufficiently account for the triumphant 
issue of their recent wars with China (1894-5) and with Russia 
(1904-5). Thus is also explained the rapidity with which the 
Mongolo-Caucasic Japanese, the barriers of exclusion once broken 
down, have taken their place in the comity of the Western nations, 
and struck alliances with Great Britain on a footing of absolute 
equality. 

Of Shinto, the national religion, the earliest form survives best 
amongst the neighbouring and closely related natives of the Liu-Kiu 
islands. Here, as originally in Japan, it is a rude system of nature- 
worship, the normal development of which was arrested by Chinese 
and Buddhist influences. Later it became associated with spirit- 
worship, the spirits being at first the souls of the dead ; and although 
there is no longer ariy cult of the dead strictly so called, the Liu-Kiu 
islanders probably pay more respect to the departed than any other 
people in the world. 

In Japan Shintoism, as reformed in recent times and almost 
merged in the Bushidoism now affected by the educated classes, 
has become much more a political institution than a religious 
system. The Ka?ni-?to-michi, ox "Way of the Gods," or "Spirits," 
is inseparably bound up with the political interests of the reigning 
dynasty sprung from the Sun-Goddess. Hence its three cardinal 



Mongolic or Yellow Division 171 

virtues are : i. Honour the Kami (spirits), of whom the emperor 
is the chief representative on earth ; 2. Revere him as thy sovereign ; 
3. Obey his will, and that is the whole duty of man. There is 
no moral code, and loyal expositors have declared that the Mikado's 
will is the supreme or only test of right and wrong. There are 
dim notions about a supreme creator, immortality, and even rewards 
and penalties in the after-life. Some even talk vaguely of a sublime 
being or divine essence pervading all nature, too vast or ethereal 
to be personified or addressed in prayer, identified with the tenka, 
(heavens), from which all things emanate, to which all return. 
Yet there are Shinto temples for the worship of the Kami (spirits, 
or invisible agencies), of which there are "eight millions," conceived 
as spiritual forces and self-existing personalities. 

Buddhism, introduced about 550 a.d., had great vogue under 
the miUtary rule of the Shogun usurpers of the Mikado's functions 
(i 192-1868 A.D.). The land was covered with Buddhist shrines 
and temples, some of vast size and quaint design, filled with hideous 
idols, huge bells, and colossal statues of Buddha. But with the 
supersession of the Shoguns Buddhism fell on evil days, and the 
temples, spoiled of their treasures, have become the resort of 
pleasure-seekers rather than of pious worshippers. To the larger 
shrines are attached regular shows, playhouses, panoramas, besides 
lotteries, sports, and games of all kinds, including the famous fan- 
throwing, kite-flying, and shooting galleries, where the bow and 
arrow and the blow-pipe take the place of the rifle. The accumulated 
wealth of the priests has been confiscated, the monks driven from 
their monasteries, and the temple bells sold for old metal. The 
Siza^ sometimes called a third " religion," is a sort of refined 
materialism based on the ethical teachings of Confucius. Always 
confined to the learned classes, it has in recent years found-a formid- 
able rival in the "English Philosophy," represented by such writers as 
Buckle, Mill, Herbert Spencer, Darwin, and Huxley, most of whose 
works have been translated into Japanese. This language, long 
cultivated under Chinese influences, and written either with Chinese 
hieroglyphics or with a local syllabary derived from them, is 
remotely related to Korean, and both still more remotely connected 
with the Ural-Altaic family. But the kinship is very obscure, and 
some hold that they are stock languages radically distinct from all 
others. This would imply an immense antiquity for early man 
in the extreme East, and such antiquity is pointed at by the 



172 The Wofld^s Peoples 

presence of the Caucasic element, which must date back to the 
Stone Ages. 

The Turki Peoples 

A sharp distinction is drawn by anthropologists between the 
eastern (Mongolic) and the western (Turkic) sections of the Mongolo- 
Tatar division. Both are undoubtedly sprung from the parent 
Mongol stock cradled on the Tibetan tableland. But while the 
eastern section has with few exceptions (Koreans, Japanese) 




FIG. 100. — TURKISH LADY WI'J'JI SON AND SERVANT 
Wears the veil discarded by her servant 

preserved its racial purity, the western has been so long in contact 
with Caucasic peoples that its original Mongol descent is now often 
revealed more by its Ural-Altaic speech than by its blurred or 
profoundly modified physical characters. Who would suspect that, 
for instance, the present Magyars, one of the handsomest races in 
Europe, were a thousand years ago coarse-featured Ugrian Finns 
but for their Finno-Turkic speech (Figs. 107, 108). And so also 
with the Finns themselves, the Anatolian and Osmanli Turks, and 
the Bulgarians (Fig. 106), these last being now grouped as Aryan 
Slavs, because they have lost their Ugro-Finnic mother-tongue. 



174 The "World^s Peoples 

Intelligent observers have often been impressed by this progressive 
conformity of the Turki branch to the European type. The point 
has been well brought out by Captain Younghusband, who during 
his westward journey through Central Asia "noticed a gradual, 
scarcely perceptible, change from the round of a Mongolian type 
to a sharper and yet more sharp type of feature. As we get farther 
away from Mongolia we notice that the faces become gradually 
longer and narrower, and farther away still, among some of the 
inhabitants of Afghan Turkestan, we see that the Tatar or Mongol 
type of feature is almost entirely lost." Hence also Peschel's 
remark that the western Turks have absorbed so much Aryan and 
Semitic blood that the last traces of their original physical characters 
have been lost, and their language alone indicates their previous 
descent. 

The Turks, whose primeval home was the Altai uplands, had 
reached Europe, probably in straggling bands, before the new era, 
for they are mentioned by name both by Pomponius Mela {Ttircae) 
and by Pliny {Tyrcae) as already seated on the banks of the Tanais 
(Don) about that time. Later the great Khan of the Altai Turks 
was visited by the Byzantine envoy Zimarchus (569 a.d.), who 
describes the " Turkoi " as nomads who dwelt in tents mounted 
on waggons, cremated the dead, and raised monuments to their 
memory, statues and cairns with a stone for every man killed by 
the deceased in battle — the more they killed the more the after- 
glory. Then came the renowned Uigurs, who were early split into 
two sections, the O n- Uigur {^^T&n Uigurs") in the south and the 
Toghuz-Uigur ("Nine Uigurs") in the north; and when the 0ns 
disappeared in the west, lost amongst the Volga Finns, there 
remained only the Toghuzes, henceforth known in history simply 
as Uigurs. One of their seats was Turfan at the foot of the 
Tian-shan range, and it was here that in t 905-6 A. von Lecoq 
explored several places long swallowed up in the sands and brought 
away manuscripts in ten different languages. A gruesome discovery 
was also made of the closely packed bodies of Buddhists still clothed 
in their monkish robes, who had all been massacred by the fanatical 
Moslem Uigurs during the fierce wars waged by them against 
Buddhism. They were amongst the first to join the devastating 
hordes of Jenghiz Khan's successors, and their name thus became 
perpetuated as the " Ogres " of fable and nursery tales. 

Near the Uigurs dwelt the kindred Ughuz, who are now 



Mongolic Of Yellow Division 



175 



represented in Bokhara and surrounding lands by the Uzbegs, in 
Western Turkestan by the Turkomans, and in Asia Minor by the 
Osmanli, so named from Othman, founder of the present Ottoman 
empire, which has alone survived the shipwreck of all the historical 
Turki states. Those who, following the fortunes of the Othman 
dynasty, crossed the Bosporus, captured Constantinople (1453), 
and founded new homes in the Balkan Peninsula, now prefer to call 




FIG. 102. — TURKISH LADY 
The more obese the more admired are the ladies of the harem 



themselves " Osmanli," even repudiating the national name " Turk" 
still retained with pride by the ruder peasant classes of Asia Minor. 
They number scarcely one-tenth of the population of Turkey in 
Europe, and here they have entered on a period of decadence 
which must lead to their ultimate extinction as a separate Moham- 
medan nationality. There may be some truth in the remark of 
Chateaubriand that the Turks have but camped in Europe, and 
expect some day to return to the steppe lands whence they came. 



176 The World's Peoples 

In any case they are being outstripped in all pursuits — retail trade, 
commerce, the industrial arts, and even agriculture — by their 
Christian fellow-subjects. Being the dominant class, they look more 
to the sweets of office than to personal efforts for a livelihood. 
Being naturally indolent and of a sluggish temperament, they rarely 
take the trouble to learn foreign languages, and thus find themselves 
at a great disadvantage compared with the other races — Greeks, 
Armenians, Slavs — most of whom usually speak two or three. The 
fatalism of the Koran has also deprived the Turk of the spirit of 
enterprise, while polygamy and slavery have a distinctly demoralising 
effect. No doubt the rich alone can indulge in the luxury of a 
harem ; but from them the poor learn to despise women, a first step 
towards racial decay (Fig. 102). 

In Asia Minor the relations are somewhat different, and here 
many of the intruders from Central Asia continue to lead the 
same pastoral life as their nomad forefathers. Thus the Yuruks, 
members of the " Black Sheep " horde, are still nomads, migrating 
with their flocks between their summer and winter camping-grounds. 
Some have fixed abodes, but most of them live in black goat-hair 
tents, or in huts made of branches, entered on all fours and nearly 
always full of smoke. They are Mohammedans only in name, 
and their women go unveiled, even raising their heads to salute the 
passing wayfarer. Amongst the first arrivals were the Zeibeks of the 
Misoghis uplands, who cherish the memory of their ancestral glories, 
and display a great love of finery and costly weapons. They fancy- 
the whole world is theirs by right, and the authorities have in 
vain endeavoured to assimilate them to the rest of the population 
by interdicting their gorgeous national costume. The Turks 
properly so called are seen to much greater advantage than 
their Osmanli cousins, and are highly spoken of for the moral 
qualities of uprightness, truth, manliness, courage, and hospitaHty. 
But without being indolent they dislike hurry, refuse to be hustled 
and declare that "haste is the devil's, patience Allah's." In the 
home they display the true spirit of kindness and justice, which 
is extended even to the domestic animals. Monogamy is the rule, 
and the wife, mistress in her home, is treated with real affection. 
The Anatolian Turks are now the last mainstay of the race, both 
in numbers and vitality. Yet even, amongst them the ominous cry 
of " Back to the steppe ! " has already been raised. 

In Siberia the Turki race is represented chiefly by the nominal 



178 The World*s Peoples 

Christian Yakuts of the Lena basin and the Moslem Kirghizes of 
the western steppes. The Yakuts, who number about 200,000, 
are almost the only progressive aborigines in this region. They 
not only exist but display a considerable degree of energy and 
enterprise, in the very coldest part of the inhabitable world. In 
a temperature at which the mercury freezes their children may be 
seen gambolling naked in the snow, and these "men of iron," as 
they have been called, will lounge about with the glass marking — 70° F. 
airily arrayed in a shirt and sheepskin cloak. Although baptized 
as Orthodox Christians, they are all Shamanists at heart, still con- 
juring the powers of nature, but offering no worship to a supreme 
deity, of whom they have a vague notion, though he is too far off 
to hear, or too good to need their supplications. Thanks to their 
commercial spirit the Yakut language, a very pure Turki idiom, 
has become a general medium of intercourse throughout East Siberia 
from the Chinese frontier to the Frozen Ocean. 

Of the Kirghizes there are two main sections, the Kara-Kirghiz 
(Black Kirghiz) of the Pamir and Tian-shan uplands, and the 
Kirghiz-Kazaks (Riders), whose domain comprises a great part 
of West Siberia. AH present very much the same physical features, 
square and somewhat flat Mongol face, oblique eyes, large mouth, 
feet and hands, yellowish brown skin, short stature, and ungainly 
obese figures. The real national name is Kazak (Riders), and as 
they were originally mounted marauders, the term was gradually 
extended to all nomad horsemen, and was in this sense adopted by 
the Russians in the form of Kossack. The Kazaks are grouped in 
four historical sections — the Great, Middle, Little, and Inner 
Hordes — whose joint domain reaches from Lake Balkhash round 
the Caspian Sea down to the Lower Volga. They have all long 
been nominal Mussulmans, but free from fanaticism, without 
mosques or mollahs, their whole religion being limited to a few 
simple rites strongly tinged with the traditions of the old Shamanism. 
Every Kirghiz is attended throughout life by two invisible spirits — a 
guardian angel perched on his right shoulder who inspires him with 
good thoughts, and on his left a devil who tempts him to evil, and 
according as he hearkens to one or the other he is rewarded or 
punished in the next world. All are essentially stock-breeders, 
living mainly on the produce of their herds, and dwelling in 
large round tents with no partitions and little furniture (Fig. 
104). The universal drink ku?niss, fermented mare's milk, kept 



i8o 



The W 



Of 



ld*s Peoples 



in skins, is very wholesome, and said to be a specific against all 

chest diseases. 

Before their reduction by the Russians (i 88 1-2), the Turkomans 

of West Turkestan had been a predatory nomad race throughout 

historic times. They are distinguished from other Asiatics by a 

bold penetrating 
glance de- 
veloped by the 
dangers of the 
alainans or ma- 
rauding excur- 
sions which had 
been their chief 
pastime since 
the days of their 
fierce Parthian 
ancestors. In 
these alamans 




every precau- 
tion was taken 
against ftiilure, 
and as they 
usually took 
place about 
dawn, they were 
nearly always 
successful. The 
Persian caravans 
were constantly 
taken by sur- 
prise, all who 
showed any re- 
sistance being 
cut down and 

the "rest carried off to supply the slave markets. The settled 
districts in Persia itself were frequently raided, so that a perpetual 
struggle was kept up between the barbaric predatory hordes of 
the northern steppe, and the cultured agricultural peoples of the 
fertile southern lands. Hence in the national records Iran (Persia) 
was the Land of Light, and Turdn (Turkestan) the Land of Night, 



Phoio by Mr. E. Delmar Morgan 

FIG. 105. — SARTS 
Tajak and Uzbeg traders and artisans 



Mongolic or Yellow Division 



iSi 



and out of the everlasting conflict arose the two principles of Good 
and Evil, ever contending for the upper hand in the ancient 
Zoroastrian religion, as still in the later Christian systems. 

The Ugro-Finns 
From their original seats on the Altai uplands near their Turk 




FIG. I06.— MAN AND WOMAN OF BULGARIA 
Finns assimilated in physique and speech to the Slavs 

relatives the proto-Finns moved ages ago down the Irtish and 
Obi rivers to the Ural Mountains, where they made a long sojourn, 
and also acquired some degree of culture, and especially that 
skill in working the precious and other metals to which repeated 
reference is made in the songs of the Ka/ei<ala epic. The Urals 
thus became a second home and point of dispersion for the Ugrian 
Finns^ as they were here called, and from this region their 



l82 



The World's Peoples 






early and later migrations can be followed north to the Arctic Ocean 
(Samoyads), down the Kama River to the Volga {Vo/ga Finns), 

thence south and west to the 
Danube {Bulgars, Avars, and 
Magyars), and north-west to 
the Baltic lands {Karelians, 
Tavastians, and Quaens of 
Finland ; Lapps ; Livonians, 
and others). Thus was con- 
stituted the widespread Fin- 
nish family, whose domain 
comprised a great part of 
East Europe and West Si- 
beria two thousand years ago. 
But since then many of its 
branches have disappeared, 
absorbed by the Kirghizes 
and other Turki peoples in 
Asia, and by the great Slav 
world in Europe. Others, 
such as the natives of Fin- 
land, the Bulgarians, and the 
Magyars of Hungary, have 
adapted themselves to West- 
ern ways and become as- 
similated in religion, social 
usages, and physical appear- 
ance — the Bulgars even in 
speech — to the European type 
(Figs. 106-8). But the old 
Finnish customs, traditions, 
and religious notions may 
still be studied amongst 
the Samoyads, the Lapps, the 
Votyaks, Mordvins, Chere- 
misses and other Volga 
Finns, although even these 
are now mostly nominal Christians. Thus, despite their Russian 
orthodoxy, the Samoyads, who range from Archangel to Novaia 
Zemlya, still retain the old pagan beliefs : " As long as_ things 




*•!%>« ^,^i£™lm^ 



FIG. 107. — HUNGARIAN WOMAN 
Magyar stock 



Mongolic or Yellow Division 



t83 



go well with him, he is a Christian ; but should his reindeer die, 
or other catastrophe happen, he immediately returns to his old 
God Nti77i or Chaddi. He conducts his heathen services by night 
and in secret, and carefully screens from sight any image of Chaddi.' 




FIG. I08. — HUNGARIANS 
. The dominant Magyars of Caucasic type and Finno-Ugrian speech 

The wooden cross on the Samoyad graves is supplemented by 
an overturned sledge to convey the dead safely over the snows 
of the under-world ; and although Chaddi is no longer honoured 
with human victims, only a few years ago a young girl was sacrificed 
to him in Novaia Zemlya. 

Similar beliefs and practice? still prevail even amongst the Volga 



184 



The Wofld*s Peoples 



Finns, and in 1896 some Votyaks were convicted of the murder 
of a passing mendicant whom they had beheaded to appease the 
wrath of Kiremet, Spirit of Evil and author of the famine then 
raging in Central Russia. Besides Kiremet, the Votyaks also 
worship Inmar, God of Heaven, to whom they sacrifice animals 

and even hu- 
man beings 
whenever it can 
be safely done. 
These super- 
stitions are not 
even confined to 
the Volga Finns, 
and many of 
the surrounding 
Orthodox Rus- 
sians are occa- 
sionally guilty of 
almost incredi- 
ble deeds of 
violence inspired 
by the old 
heathen beliefs. 
Such a case oc- 
curred in August 
1907, in the 
village of Suso- 
yeff, near Liady, 
where a peasant 
named Michai- 
loff had an ex- 
ceedingly clever 
little son, who 
became famous 

as a prodigy, and was almost believed to be a miraculous being. 
In the neighbourhood there lived a rich and very devout peasant 
called the "Saint," who was supposed to be a prophet. This saint 
grew jealous of the child's popularity, and began to spread rumours 
that should he be allowed to grow up he would become the Anti- 
christ and bring untold woe upon the peasants. 




FIG. 109. — LAPP 
Finnish stock and speech 



Mongolic or Yellow Division 



185 



On July 30 the prophet called a meeting of the thirty richest 
peasants in the district, and explained to them that if the boy was 
killed they would be made happy and prosperous, and the village 




Photo by K. E. Stahlberg, Helsingjors 

FIG. 1 10. — FINNS PLAYING RUSSIAN KARELIA 
Finns are now of European type, but still speak their Finno-Ugrian mother-tongue 

would become the capital of the country. It was agreed to sacrifice 
the child, 'and two days later the saint gave orders to the men, 
took an _ikon (holy image) in his hands, and distribyt^cl lighted 



i86 



The World's Peoples 



candles amongst his followers. He headed the procession to the 
child's home at night and demanded that the parents should hand 
the boy over, as he wanted to pray with him. 

The prophet washed the youngster, saying prayers meanwhile, 
and then choked him by placing his foot on his neck in front of 
the parents. Subsequently he ordered the terrified father to help 
him to tear the child to pieces, and as he refused the body was 
chopped up with a hatchet. The remains were then put into a 
basket which was attached to the tail of a white mare. The saint 




Photo by K. E. Stahlberg, Helsingfors 

FIG. III.- 



-FINNISH WOMEN 



mounted the horse and declared that it was the will of God that 
the body should be buried at a spot where the horse would volun- 
tarily stop. The horse started, and the peasants, still burning their 
candles, followed. At a certain point the animal halted, and there 
the remains were buried with the hatchet and the basket. 

Then the saint turned to the father, who had in superstitious 
fear witnessed the ceremony without protest, and told him that on 
the following morning two golden hairs would have grown on his 
head, while the grave would be transformed into a well throwing 
out boiling water and liquid sulphur. 



Mongolic or Yellow Division ^187 

In this atrocity no less than twenty-eight men Avere implicated 
and arrested by the police {Daily Press). 

Of the Mongol physical characters the Lapps, who are politi- 
cally divided between Russia, Sweden, and Norway, still retain 
the round low skull (index 83°), the salient cheek-bones, somewhat 
flat features, ungainly figure, and low, almost dwarfish, stature, 
but not the yellow skin, which is now white, nor the black hair, 
which is now brown. In temperament also they are more Asiatic 
than European — somewhat sullen, obstinate, and apathetic, lacking 
enterprise, and still fishers, hunters, and reindeer herdsmen, as 
described by King Alfred in his Orosius. Alfred calls them all 
"Finns," as the Norwegians always do, the term Lapp being 
confined to the Swedes and Russians. In pagan times Shamanism 
was highly developed, a striking feature of the system being the " rune- 
trees," made of pine or birch bark, inscribed with figures of gods, 
men, or animals, which were consulted, and their oracular responses 
interpreted, by the shamans. Even foreign potentates hearkened 
to the voice of these world-famed magicians, and in England 
the expression " Lapland witches " became proverbial, although 
it appears that there never were any witches, but only wizards, in 
Lapland. The old notions of a' material after-life just like the 
present still survive, although the Lapps are all now either Lutheran 
or Orthodox Christians. Money and other treasures are often 
hid away, the owners dying without revealing the secret in the 
hope of thus making provision for the next world. Yet there are 
periodical retreats and revivals, accompanied by the same hysterical 
excesses as in Wales and Liberia. 



CHAPTER VI 

MONGOLIC DIVISION {continued) 

THE TIBETO-INDO-CHINESE AND MALAYANS 

The Tibetans (p. i88) — The Indo-Chinese Aborigines (p. 192) —The Burmese 
(p. 198) — The Tai Nation : Shans and Laos (p. 202) — The Siamese (p. 203) 
Tiie Anamese (p. 205) — The Chinese (p. 206) — The Oceanic or Malayan 
Mongols (p. 212) — The Cultured Malayans (p. 213) — The Javanese (p. 214) — 
The Borneans (p. 215) — The Battas and Nias Islanders (p. 216) — 
The Malays Proper (p. 218) — The Philippine Natives (p. 220)— The 
Formosans (p. 222) — The Malagasy (p. 223). 

The Tibetans 

IN Tibet, primeval home of Homo Asiaticus (see p. 18), we have 
to distinguish three well-marked groups : i. The Bod-pa, 
(Bod-men), the dominant and more cultured section who occupy 
the fertile southern provinces of which Lhasa is the capital, who 
till the land, live in towns, and have passed from the tribal to the 
civic state. 2. The Drupa, peaceful semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, 
who live in tents on the central tableland 14,000 or 15,000 feet 
above sea-level. 3. The Tuftguts, restless predatory tribes, who 
roam the north-eastern borderlands between Tsaidam (Koko-nor 
district) and China. All are true Tibetans, speak the Tibetan 
language, and profess one or other of the two national religions, 
Bonbo and Buddhism. But the original type is best preserved, not 
amongst the somewhat mixed Bod-pa, but amongst the ruder Dru- 
pa, who are undersized (5 ft. 4 or 5 in.) and round-headed, with long 
black hair, brown or hazel eyes, slightly prominent cheek-bones, 
thick nose depressed at the root and narrow, but with wide nostrils, 
large-lobed ears, broad shoulders, large feet and hands, light brown, 
rough and greasy skin nearly the colour of the American Indians. 

l88 



Mongolic Division 



189 



Most contradictory estimates have been formed of the mental 
qualities of the Tibetans — knavish, treacherous, lying, deceitful, 
cringing to the strong, arrogant to the weak (Desgodins), or kind- 
hearted, affectionate, and law-abiding (Rockhill). Their own 
opinion of themselves is not flattering, their admitted shortcomings 
being explained by the curious national legend that they sprang 
from a king of monkeys and a female hobgoblin. From the king 
(now an incarnate god) they have religious faith, kindheartedness, 




Pholo by Mr. H. V. C. Hunter, F.R.G.S. 

FIG. 112. — TIBETANS OF LADAK 
In these Ladakis there is a strong Caucasic strain 

intelligence, and devotion ; from the hobgoblin cruelty, lustfulness, 
the commercial (or mercenary) spirit, and carnivorous tastes. They 
are certainly the victims of a depressing priestly rule, a vast 
organised system of hypocrisy, with a veneer of Buddhism above 
the old pagan beliefs, and above this another most pernicious veneer 
of lamaism or grasping priestcraft, under which the natural develop- 
ment of the people has been almost completely arrested. The 
burden has been borne with surprising endurance, finding occasional 
relief in secret or even open revolt against the more irksome 
ordinances, prescribing, for instance, a strict vegetarian diet in the 
formula " eat animal flesh, eat thy brother." Yet not only laymen, 



1 9° The World's Peoples 

but most of the lamas themselves supplement their frugal diet of 
milk, butter, barley-meal, and fruits with game, yak (beef), and 
mutton. The public conscience, however, is saved by a few extra 
turns of the prayer- wheel, and by the general contempt in which the 
hereditary caste of butchers are held. Amongst the ruder nomad 
tribes, who wear the religious cloak very loosely, the taste for liquid 
blood is insatiable. They have been seen to fall prone on the 
ground to lap up the blood flowing from a wounded beast, and the 
very children and horses are fed on a horrible mess of cheese, 
butter, and blood. 

Tibet is one of the few regions where polyandrous customs still 
persist almost in their pristine vigour. The husbands are usually all 
brothers, the eldest being the putative J>afer familias, while the 
others are regarded as "uncles." But polygamy is preferred by 
the wealthy classes, while monogamy is the rule among the poor 
pastoral nomads of the steppe lands. The dead are disposed of in 
divers ways at the pleasure of the lamas, who see that the head of 
the deceased is first shaved to facilitate the transmigration oT the 
soul, and then order the body to be cremated, buried, or cast into 
the river, or, as in Mongolia, thrown to beasts of prey or carrion 
birds. The old Shamanism, here called Bonho, still persists in 
many districts side by side with^the ofificial lamaism. From the 
colour of the priestly robes it is called the sect of the " Blacks," in 
contradistinction to the orthodox " Yellow " and dissenting " Red " 
lamaists. 

There are also red and black demons, the snake devil, and the 
fiery tiger-god, head of this truly diabolical pantheon. Reference is 
often made to the remarkable " coincidences " between the Tibetan 
and Christian systems — the cross, the mitre, choir singing, exorcisms, 
incense-burning, celibacy, the rosary, fasts, processions, litanies, 
spiritual retreats, holy water, scapulars, relics, pilgrimages, music, 
bells, invocation of saints. As the Roman Church controlled 
all knowledge in mediaeval times, so the Tibetan lamas still 
hold a monopoly of all science, letters, and arts. The block 
printing-presses are all kept in the huge lamaserais (monasteries) 
which cover the land, and from them are issued only orthodox 
works and treatises on magic. Religion itself is mainly a system 
of magic, the sole aim of all worship being to baffle the 
machinations of the demons who at every turn beset the path of 
the wayfarer. Hence the ubiquitous prayer-wheels^a clever 



192 



The "World's Peoples 



contrivance by which innumerable supplications may be offered up 
night and day to the powers of darkness — are incessantly kept going 

all over the land. 
They are set up in all 
the houses, by the 
river-banks or on the 
hillside, and are 
turned, not only by 
the hands of the de- 
vout, but even me- 
chanically by the winds 
and running waters, 
and some are so large 
— thirty to forty feet 
high and fifteen to 
twenty in diameter — 
that at each turn of 
the wheel they can 
repeat the contents of 
whole volumes of litur- 
gical essays stowed 
away in their capa- 
cious receptacles. 
And meanwhile slag- 
nation reigns supreme 
over the most priest- 
ridden land under the 
sun. For a moment it 
was roused from its 
torpor by the British 
expedition to Lhasa 
(1904), but appears to 
have fallen asleep 
again. 




The Indo-Chinese 
Aborigines 

From the lofty 
Tibetan plateau early man found his way down the great rivers — 
Irawadi, Salwin, Mekhong— to the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, where 



Photo by Kapp & Co. 

FIG. 114. — BHUTIAN WOMAN, TIBET 
Fine Tibetan type 



Mongolic Division 



193 



many of the first arrivals, such as the Mishmi, Abors, Kuki, Lushai, 
Chins, Nagas, Kakhyens, Karens, Khas, and Moi, have remained 
in the pristine savage state, and now constitute the aboriginal 
elements of that region. But others have, under Hindu and 
Chinese influences, become cultured peoples and founders of 
well-organised political states, of which the most powerful were 
Burma, now a British possession, Siam, still autonomous, Camboja, 
Cochin-China, Anam, and Tongkin, all French dependencies. 
From the infantile notions of the aborigines, we may learn much 




h'lom " The Silken East," by pcnnisslon of the Author, Mr. V. C. Scott O'C^vhi'-j 
FIG. 115. — THE KAREN' MISSION AT PHA-PUN 
The numerous Karen tribes occupy the uplands between Barma and Siam 

regarding the cosmologies and " philosophies " of primitive peoples. 
Thus the Kuki and their Lushai relatives have a curious theory 
of the Creation, according to which the face of the earth was 
originally covered with one vast sea inhabited by a gigantic worm. 
One day the Creator, striding across this worm, dropped a handful 
of clay, saying, " Of this I mean to make a land and people it " ; 
to which the worm : " What ! you think to make a habitable land 
out of this bit of soil ! Why, it is absurd. Look here, I can 
swallow it." But the lump, immediately passing out of his body, 

13 



tQ4 



The World's Peoples 



grew and grew until it became the world we now see. Then man 
sprang out of the ground by the will of the gods, of whom there are 
three : Lambra the Creator, without whose consent nothing can be 
done by the others ; Golarai, god of death ; and the beneficent 
Dudukal with his wife Fapite. Some of the Chins of the Chindwin 
valley think they were formerly very powerful, but were ruined by 
their insane efforts to capture the sun. With a sort of Jacob's 
ladder they mounted higher and higher, but growing tired, quarrelled 




Photo by Wn/i. c- ^kd-ii 

FIG. Il6. — KAREN WOMEN, SOUTH-EAST BURMA 
Akin to the Burmese ; many are now Christians 

among themselves, and one day, while half of them were aloft and 
just about to seize the sun, the others below cut down the ladder 
and all were dashed to pieces. They never recovered from that 
blow and are now a feeble folk. 

Many believe in a head god, or rather demon, to whom they 
sacrifice, but do not expect any favour from him except immunity 
from the plagues and misfortunes he is apt to inflict on those that 
offend him. The real objects of worship are the innumerable nafs 
or spirits of the house, family, clan, fields, who also swarm in the 



196 



The Woi:'ld*s Peoples 



=^" 




air, the streams, the jungle, and the hills. None can bestow bless- 
ings, but all are imps of mischief who can and will do harm unless 
appeased with offerings. Cholera and small-pox are reckoned 
amongst the nats, and when cholera broke out amongst the Chins 
who visited Rangoon in 1895, they kept their knives drawn against 
the nat and hid away under bushes to prevent him from finding 
them. Another great trouble is the evil eye, and some of the tribes 
think all their neighbours are wizards, whose single glance can 

bewitch them and make 
lizards enter their body 
-^ and devour the entrails. 
The departed go to " Dead 
Man's Village," which is 
divided into a pleasant 
abode for those who die 
a natural death, and a 
wretched abode for those 
killed in a fray. Here 
they must bide till avenged 
by blood ; and the ven- 
detta thus acquires a re- 
ligious sanction, since the 
slain becomes the slave of 
the slayer in the next 
world. Whether a man 
has been honest or not in 
this world does not matter ; 
but the more people he 
has killed the better, since 
he will have more slaves 
to serve him in the after- 
life. The same applies 
to the quarry, for all that he kills on earth are his for ever. Hunting 
and drinking still go on as in the flesh, but whether fighting and 
raiding also is a point not settled by the native theologians. 

It appears that all these aborigines who revelled in blood were 
formerly, as some still are, head-hunters, and the Murram Nagas 
have a legend dealing with the practice. They alone of all the Nagas 
have two hereditary chiefs, a greater and a lesser, which is thus 
explained : a former chief had two sons, the younger of whom, being 



From " The Silken East." by permission of the 
Author, Mr. V. C. Scott O'Connor 

VIG. 118. — A MASTER BUILDER OF 
PAKOKU, LOWER BURMA 



Mongolic Division 



197 



the greater warrior, wanted his father to give him the succession. But 
being unable to deprive the elder of his birthright, the aged chief first 
told him to go and secretly bring home the head of some foe; then 
he sent both on a like expedition on the understanding that he who 
came back first should be heir. The elder of course was first with 




From " The Silken East." ''.i l^amissiou of Ihc Aii'hor, Mr. ]\ C. -: >/• 

FIG. 119. — THE MAGISTRATE OF HOMALIN AND HIS FAMILY 



the head he had already secured and hidden in the neighbouring 
bush. But the younger still persisting, a compromise was made by 
which both should succeed, one as the big, the other as the little 
chief, and so it has been ever since. A pleasanter trait is their 
devotion to the game of polo, which is played much in the same 
way as by the Baltis and others at the opposite extremity of the 
Himalayas. 



igS 



The World*s Peoples 



The Burmese 

Even the cultured Burmese people, although now all Buddhists, 
have their old-time legends, and in the national records we read how 

two thousand years ago 
the land was overrun 
with fabulous monsters 
and other terrors, which 
to this day are called 
" the five enemies." 
These were a fierce tiger, 
a huge boar, a flying 
dragon, a prodigious 
man-eating bird, and an 
enormous trailing pump- 
kin, which threatened 
to entangle the whole 
country. The race, how- 
ever, has outlived these 
dangers, and the Bur- 
mese now form a well- 
defined nationality, 
whose type has been de- 
scribed as somewhat 
intermediate between 
the Chinese and the 
Malay. The features 
are softer and more 
rounded than either, 
with a yellowish brown 
or olive complexion, 
often showing very dark 
shades, full black and 
lank hair, no beard, 
small but straight nose, 
weak extremities, pliant 
figure, and average 
height (5 ft. 5 or 6 in.). 

Softness and a distinctly refined air also give the keynote to 
the national temperament, which is marked by a bright, genial 




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PI^K.,1 .$>-: 


"^ iH^^H 






Ip^ 


SSSBBHBBhIHI 






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n. 


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Front " The Sillcen East," by permission of the Author' 
Mr. V. C. Scolt O'Connor 

FIG. 120.— BURMESE WOMAN AND CHILD 



The Wofld's Peoples 



disposition, natural kindness, and extreme friendliness towards 
strangers. Such traits more than outweigh a certain listlessness and 

apathy which hurts 
nobody but them- 
selves, and a little 
vanity or arro- 
gance inspired by 
the still remem- 
bered glories of a 
nation that once 
ruled over a great 
part of the penin- 
sula. But per- 
haps the most 
remarkable trait is 
the almost demo- 
cratic indepen- 
denceand equality 
of all classes, who 
mingle together 
with perfect ease 
and freedom. 
This feature, so 
remarkable in 
Asiatics, is due 
partly to the ab- 
sence of social 
or racial castes, 
partly to the level- 
ling influence of 
Buddhism, which 
is of an entirely 
different com- 
plexion from that 
of Tibet and 
Siam, its true 
beneficent spirit 
having been better 
preserved in Burma than elsewhere. Here the priesthood is not a 
specially privileged or exclusive class, since everybody is or has been 




From " The Silken East," by peimission of the Author, 
Mr. V. C. Scott O'Connor 

FIG. 122. — A YOUNG BURMESE LADY 



Mongolic Division 



a priest for some period of his life. All enter the monasteries, 

which are the national schools, not only for instruction but actually 

as members of the sacerdotal order. They submit to the tonsure, 

take "minor orders," so to say, and 

wear the yellow robe, if only for a few 

months or weeks. But for the time 

being they must renounce " the world, 

the flesh, and the devil," and must play 

the mendicant, that is, make the round 

of the village at least once or twice with 

the begging-bowl hung round their neck 

in company with the regular members 

of the community. These have no 

spiritual powers whatever, and all they 

do for the alms lavished on them by the 

laity is to instruct their children in 

reading, writing, and the rudiments of 

religion (J. G. Scott). 

It is a pleasant social picture in 
which the women also have their full 
share. Nowhere else do they enjoy a 
larger measure of freedom, with the 
result that they are far more virtuous, 
thrifty, and intelligent than any other 
Asiatic women. In all the markets 
young girls may be seen squatted behind 
stalls laden with all kinds of wares, the 
price of every article being known to 
them ; and such is their probity that 
buyers never expect to be cheated. 
Most of the retail trade is in their 
hands, and "they may be said to be 
men's companions and not their slaves " 
(Bishop Bigandet). 

In Burma tattooing has become a 
fine art unsurpassed even in Japan or 
Polynesia. The most elaborate designs 

are executed only on the men, who are covered from waist to 
knees with heraldic figures of animals and intervening traceries, 
so that at a little distance the effect is that of a pair of dark- 




Photo by Wa4ls & Skeeii 



KIG. 



123. — A TSAWKOO C.1RI., 
INUO-CHINA 



202 



The World*s Peoples 



blue breeches. The pigments are lamp-black or vermilion, and 
the pattern is first traced with a fine hair pencil and then worked 
in with a pointed brass style. 

The Tai Nation : Shans and Laos 

Between the Burmese in the extreme west and the Anamese 
in the extreme east the whole land is occupied by one of the most 
numerous and widespread peoples of Asia, the Tai or TWiai (" Free," 




I'liolo by I'rof. James McCaiiliy 

FIG. 124. — PUEN LAO GROUP, LUANG-PRABANG DISTRICT 
Dominant on the Middle JMekhong', but now subject to France 

" Noble "), as they call themselves, the Shans and Laos, as they 
are respectively called by the Burmese and Siamese. They are the 
Fai of the Chinese, and Prince Henry of Orleans tells us that 
Pai groups are met all along the route followed by him between 
Indo-China and China. But their primitive domain extended 
far into China itself, and some hold that they constitute a chief 
element in the present Chinese race, which as it spread southward 
amalgamated with the Tai aborigines, and thus became prot'oundly 
modified both in type and speech, the modern Chinese language 
containing over 30 per cent, of Tai ingredients. This process 



Mongolic Division 203 

of fusion has been going on for ages, not only with the southern 
Chinese but also with the Caucasic aborigines who had reached 
South-east Asia in the Stone era, and are still found scattered in 
small groups all over the uplands between Tibet and Cochin-China. 
Hence the Tai are generally of finer physique than either the 
kindred Siamese and ^Malays in the south or the more remotely allied 
Chinese in the north. The colour is much lighter, the features 
more regular, the expression more intelligent, and the Burmese 
Shans especially have " a nobler head than the Chinese ; the dark 
eyes are about horizontal, the nose is straight, the whole appearance 
approaches that of the Caucasic race " (Dr. Kreitner). 

The Siamese 

Owing to their singular lack of political cohesion, none of the 
numerous Tai groups ever succeeded in founding a powerful state, 
except the Siamese branch, which forms the bulk of the population 
in the more favoured Menam basin. Here they appear to have 
been preceded by the Caucasic Cambojans, from whom, and not 
directly from India, they received their Hindu culture. Mingling 
fact with fiction, the Siamese records refer to the miraculous birth 
of the national hero, Phra-Ruang, who threw off the Cambojan 
yoke, and declared the " Sayamas " (our Siamese) henceforth 
" Thai,"' or " Freemen," although domestic slavery has from time 
immemorial been a social institution amongst them. Ayuthia, 
north of the present capital Bangkok, and now in ruins, was for a 
long time the great centre of national life, when the empire acquired 
its greatest expansion, and comprised the whole of Camboja, 
Pegu, Tenasserim, the Malay Peninsula, and even extended its 
conquests across the narrow inland waters to the island of Java. 
A part of the Malay Peninsula is still held by Siam, although she 
herself has been almost dismembered and since 1S96 hemmed in, 
propped up, as it were, between Great Britain on the west and France 
on the east side. 

Slavery or serfdom was not restricted, as mostly elsewhere, 
to a particular class, but extended to all the king's subjects, 
so that the sense of personal dignity was lost, and any one from 
the highest to the lowest citizen might at any moment lapse 
into bondage. Like most Mongoloid peoples they are incurable 
gamblers, and before the recent reforms a freeman of any rank 



204 



The Wofld^s Peoples 



might stake all his effects, his wives, children, and self, on the 
hazard of the die. Even Buddhism, introduced about 638 a.d., 
offered no relief, as in Burma, but on the contrary, with its rigid 
precepts and senseless formularies, served only to tighten the bonds 
of body and soul. So numerous, absurd, and exacting are the 
monastic rules that but for the aid of the novices and temple 
servants the monks would find existence impossible. They must 

not dig or delve, 
plant or sow ; boil 
rice, as it would kill 
the germ — eat corn 
for the same reason ; 
climb trees, lest a 
branch get broken ; 
kindle a flame, as it 
consumes the fuel — 
put it out, as that 
also would extinguish 
life ; forge iron, as 
sparks would fly out 
and perish ; breed 
pigs or poultry ; wear 
red, black, green, or 
white garments; 
mourn for the dead ; 
in a word, neither do 
nor not do anything, 
and then despair of 
attaining Nirvana. 
But beneath it all 
spirit or devil-worship is still rife, and in many districts pure animism 
is the only religion. Even temples have been raised to the countless 
gods of land and water, woods, mountains, hamlets and house- 
holds. To these gods or fiends are credited all evils, and, to 
prevent them from getting into the " bodies " of the dead, these 
are brought out, not through door or window, but through a breach 
in the wall which is afterwards carefully built up. Incredible sums 
are impartially lavished both in offerings to these agencies and 
in support of the Buddhist establishments. The public, however, 
get some return for their money in the endless round of feasts 




By permission of the Professor of Anthropology , Natural 
History Museum, Paris 

FIG. 125. — A SIAMESE MAN 



Mongolic Division 



205 



and revels to which the expenditure gives rise, and of which the 
shrines and convents are the chief centre. Such is rehgious hfe 
in Siam. 

The Anamese 

In Anam and Tongkin we seem to breathe another, though scarcely 
a better atmosphere. Here Chinese have replaced Hindu in- 
fluences, with the 
result that from the 
dry moral precepts 
of Confucius the 
educated classes 
have acquired a 
scoffing, sceptical 
spirit unhampered 
by theological dog- 
mas, and combined 
with a lofty moral 
tone not always in 
harmony with daily 
conduct. But this 
undisguised materi- 
alism has not pene- 
trated to the masses, 
for whom the family 
is still the true base 
of the religious and 
social system, the 
head of the house- 
hold being not only 
the high priest of 
the ancestral cult, 
but also a kind of patriarch exercising almost absolute control 
over his children. Besides this ancestor-worship and the Confu- 
cian teachings, a national form of Buddhism is prevalent, and, 
as in China, some even profess all three of these so-called 
" religions." But the people still cling to their old belief in spirits, 
and especially the supernatural powers of the professional magicians, 
really Shamanists under another name. While the Buddhist temples 
are neglected, and the bo7izes (priests) despised, offerings are every- 




By permission of the Professor of Ant'iropology, 
Natural History Museum, Paris 

FIG. 126. — ANAMESR WO.MAN 

Plain inanimate features 



2o6 The "W"orId*s Peoples 

where made to the genii of agriculture, of the waters, the tiger, the 
dolphin, peace, war, sickness, whose rude effigies in the form of 
dragons or other fabulous monsters are set up in the pagodas. 
Yet in this unpromising field the French missionaries have made 
some progress, and in 1900 the converts were estimated at about 
one million. 

The Tongkinese, Anamese, and Cochin-Chinese, three closely 
connected branches of one race, are of a somewhat coarse Mongoloid 
type, characterised by a high broad forehead, salient cheek-bones, 
small crushed nose, rather thick lips, black straight hair, scant 
beard, round head (index 83° to 84°), coppery colour, mean height, 
hard fiat features and ungainly figures corresponding to a harsh, 
unsympathetic temperament. Few observers have a good word to 
say for the mental or moral qualities of the Anamese, who are 
generally described as arrogant, deceitful, and dead to all the finer 
feelings of human nature, so that after years of absence the nearest 
relatives will meet without any outward show of pleasure or 
affection. Mr. J. G. Scott completes the picture with the remark 
that " the fewer Anamese there are, the less taint there is on the 
human race." But all peoples have some good qualities, and the 
Anamese are noted for an intense love of personal freedom strangely 
contrasting with the slavish spirit of the Siamese. The feeling 
extends to all classes, so that servitude is held in abhorrent, and, 
as in Burma, a democratic sense of equality permeates the social 
system. A marked physical trait is the way the great toe is opposed 
to the others, as noticed ages ago by the Chinese, who from this 
formation call them Giao-shi, or " Cross-toes." 

The Chinese 

To China the Anamese owe almost everything, their arts and 
industries, their letters, philosophies, general culture, and even a 
considerable part of the population. Hence the transition is easy 
from this "attenuated China," as it has been called, to the real 
China, the Middle Kingdom — that is, the centre of the universe — 
whose teeming multitudes look upon themselves as the flower of 
humanity, and stigmatise the Caucasic Europeans as " Western 
Barbarians." The term China, probably from the native word Jin 
(Men), is of some antiquity, already occurring in the early Hindu 
writings, whence it passed westwards in the modified forms Sincp, 



n 7: 




2o8 



The World's Peoples 



ThtncB, there being no ch or / in Greek or Latin. On the origin of 
the race there are two views, some holding that they are the direct 
descendants of the aborigines who during the Stone Ages entered 
the Hoang-ho valley from Tibet, and there developed their peculiar 
culture independently of foreign influences, others that they are 

comparatively 
late intruders 
from Mesopo- 
tamia. This 
( ' ,;. view assumes 

that they did not 
arrive as rude 
aborigines, but 
already as a civi- 
lised people with 
a considerable 
knowledge of 
letters, science, 
and the arts, all 
of which they 
acquired from 
the cultured Ak- 
kado-Surq^erian 
inhabitants of 
Babylonia. Cer- 
tain analogies 
and even iden- 
tities are pointed 
out between the 
two cultures, and 
even between 
the two lan- 
guages, sufficient to establish a common origin of both, Meso- 
potamia being the fountain-head whence the stream flowed to 
North China by channels not yet clearly defined. The theory is 
plausible, but still a long way from being established. 

But if not of Babylonian origin, Chinese culture is still the oldest 
in the world, having persisted with little change for about four thousand 
five hundred years, whereas all other early civilisations have perished. 
This persistence, however, is not due to any general spirit of 




Photo by Mr. j. Madsen, Copenhagen 

FIG. 128. — A CHINAMAN AND HIS FAMILY 



Mongolic Division 



209 



national sentiment, which does not exist, nor to any community of 
speech, since many of the provincial dialects differ profoundly from 
each other, but mainly to a prodigious power of inertia, which has 
hitherto resisted all attempts at change either by pressure from 
without or by spontaneous impulse from within. But it may be 
inferred from the Japanese wars, the development of railway enter- 




Photo bv .li/. 



FIG. 129. — CHINESE WOMEN 
Notice the small feet 

prise, the reform movements both political and social, that the 
leaden masses have at last begun to throw off their lethargy and to 
move with the times. 

Meantime the Chinese still remain what they always have been, 
a frugal, peace-loving, hard-working people occupied almost ex- 
clusively with tillage, trade, and a few industries, such as weaving, 
dyeing, porcelain (" china ") and metal work, all of which they have 

14 



2 lb 



Ttie World^s Peoples 



brought to extraordinary perfection. A knowledge of letters is also 
widely diffused and dates from remote times, although the hiero- 
glyphic writing system still remains at the cumbrous ideographic 
stage, in which each character is a symbol, representing, not sounds 
like our letters, but ideas like our ciphers. Yet the system has the 
advantage of enabling those speaking mutually unintelligible idioms 
to converse together, using the pencil instead of the tongue, just as 




Photo by Mr. E. Delmar Morgan 



FIG. 130. 



-DUNCANS, KASHGARIA AND ZUNGARIA 
Are Moslem Chinese half-breeds 



our numerals i, 2, 3 can be read by all Europeans, each pro- 
nouncing them in his own way. 

Although next to the Koreans perhaps the least religious people 
in the world, the Chinese possess no less than three "State 
Churches," as they might be called : ju-kiao or Confucianism ; tao- 
kiao, or Taoism, dix\d fo-kiao, or Buddhism, besides the old ancestor- 
worship and universal belief in invisible agencies of all kinds. 
Confucianism is not a religion, but a frigid ethical code based on 



Mongolic Division 



211 



the moral and matter-of-fact precepts of Kiin^:;-fii-tsc, " The Eminent 
Teacher," a social reformer who taught that conduct should be 
regulated not by rewards and penalties hereafter, but by well or ill- 
being in this life. Hence his system is summed up in the ex- 
pression " worldly wnsdom," as embodied in such popular sayings 
as : Don't do what you would not have known ; plates and dishes 
may get broken in the washing (not too much zeal) ; thatch your 




Photo by Mr. E. Delmar Morgan 

FIG. 131. — DUNCANS OF KULJA IN ZUNGARIA 

roof before the rain ; dig the well before you thirst ; the gamblers' 
luck is his ruin ; money cloaks many faults ; win your suit, lose your 
money. 

Taoism, a sort of pantheistic mysticism called by its founder 
Lao-tse (600 b.c.) the Tao, or " Way of Salvation," was embodied 
in the formula — "Matter and the visible world are merely manifesta- 
tions of a sublime, eternal, incomprehensible principle." Later it 
degenerated to a mere system of magic, associated with the never- 



212 The Wofld^s Peoples 

dying primeval superstitions, and practised by an organised brothef- 
hood of astrologers, Shamanists, somnambulists, " mediums," 
"thought-readers," charlatans, and impostors of all sorts. Buddhism 
also has completely conformed to the national spirit, and is now a 
curious blend of Hindu metaphysics with the primitive Chinese 
belief in spirits and a deified ancestry. Thus the old animism is 
still manifest in a multitude of superstitious practices, which aim at 
beguiling the bad and securing the favour of the good spirits. 
Everything depends on maintaining a perfect balance between the 
two principles represented by the " White Tiger " and the " Azure 
Dragon," who guard the approaches of every dwelling and whose 
opposing influences have to be nicely adjusted by the well-paid 
professors of the magic arts. In social life appearance, outward 
show, " face," as it is called, is everything, and the essential point 
the observance of the "eleventh commandment." The question is 
never of facts but always of form, and Mr. A. H. Smith, who has 
best treated this subject^ adds that the most telling qualities of the 
Chinese in their competition with other races are " a matchless 
patience and forbearance under wrongs and evils beyond cure, a 
happy temperament, no nerves, and a digestion like that of an 
ostrich." Although an extremely courteous people among them- 
selves, an unpleasant trait is their attitude of aggressive superiority 
displayed towards strangers. " After the courteous, kindly Japanese, 
the Chinese seem indifferent, rough, and disagreeable, except the 
well-to-do merchants, who are bland, complacent, and courteous. 
Their rude stare, and the way they hustle you in the streets and 
shout their 'pidjun ' English at you is not attractive" (Mrs. Bishop). 

The Oceanic or Malayan Mongols 

In their Oceanic domain the Mongol peoples collectively called 
Malayans range from Madagascar through Malaysia to Formosa, 
but are found in compact masses chiefly in the Malay Peninsula, in 
Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Lombok, Billiton, Bangka, 
Nias, the Spice Islands, and the Philippines. Even here they have 
mingled in many places with other races, such as the Negritos in 
the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines, Papuans in Flores and 
the other islands east of Lombok, Caucasic Indonesians in most 
parts of Malaysia, and African Negroes or Bantus in Madagascar. 
Hence full-blood Mongolic Malayans are not numerous, except 



Mongolic Division 



213 



perhaps in the densely peopled island of Java, and the term 
" Malay " is itself a misnomer. It belongs originally and properly 
to a small tribe who rose to power about one thousand years ago in 
the Menangkabau district of Sumatra, and rapidly spread thence 
all over the Eastern Archipelago. Here these Orang-Maldyu 
("Malay men"), as they 
call themselves, have ac- 
quired 'a 'surprising pre- 
dominance socially if not 
politically since their con- 
version to Islam under the 
renowned Sultan Mahmud 
Shah (about 1250), and 
their language, a member 
of the great Malayo-Polyne- 
sian (Oceanic) family, has 
long been the chief medium 
of intercourse throughout 
Malaysia. 

The Cultured Malayans 

All the other mixed Ma- 
layan (properly Mongoloid) 
peoples, who never call 
themselves Malays, form 
socially two very distinct 
classes — the Orang-Bemia 
(" Men of the Soil "), rude, 
uncivilised aborigines 
numerous in the interior of 
nearly all the large islands ; 
and the cultured natives, formerly Hindus (Brahmans and 
Buddhists), but since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries nomi- 
nal Christians or Mohammedans except in Bali and Lombok, 
where Hinduism still persists. These have long been constituted 
in large communities and nationalities, with historical records, a 
rich written literature over a thousand years old, and many 
flourishing arts and industries. They speak cultivated Malayo- 
Polynesian languages which were early reduced to wriiicn form by 




From Dr. Meyer's "Album " 

FIG. 132. — WOMAN OF CELEBES 
Moslem Malayan 



214 



The World*s Peoples 



the Hindu missionaries, and are much better preserved than the 
simplified modern speech of the Orang-Malayu. Such are the 
Sundanese, Madurese, and Javanese proper of Java ; the Achinese, 
Rejangs, and Passumahs of Sumatra; the Bugis, Mangkassaras, and 
Minahasans of Celebes ; the Tagalas, Bisayas, and many others of 
the Philippines, and the Hovas of Madagascar. To call any of 

these " Malays " would be 
like calling the Dutch, 
Prussians, and Saxons 
" English," because of their 
common Teutonic descent. 

The Javanese 

Amongst the cultured 
peoples the first place must 
be awarded to the Javanese, 
who were a highly civilised 
people while many of the 
Sumatrans were still savages, 
perhaps head-hunters and 
cannibals, like the neigh- 
bouring Battas and Bornean 
Dyaks. Although now al- 
most exclusively Moham- 
medans they had already 
adopted some form of Hin- 
duism over two thousand 
years ago, and under the 
guidance of their Indian 
teachers had raised monu- 
ments, such as the pro- 
digious temple of Boro- 
Budor, which are still the 
wonder and the admiration of the world. The arts of peace and 
war were brought to great perfection, and the natives of Java 
became famous throughout the East as accomplished musicians and 
workers in gold, iron, and copper. Most curious are the survivals 
of the primitive beliefs from stone and tree worship through 
Hinduism to the present Moslem veneer. The mosques may be 
still frequented, but in times of trouble Allah is forgotten and resort 




From Dr. A. B. Meyer's " Album " 

FIG. 133. — WOMAN OF CELEBES 



Mongolic Division 



215 



had to the ancient shrines and offerings made to the old Hindu 
deities, or to the sacred fig-trees beneath whose shade the natives 
often gather to worship the old earth-gods. Respect is also paid 
to the turtle-doves and to the monkeys that have their homes in 
the spreading branches of these trees, and even to certain strangely 
shaped rocks, carrying the mind back to the stone-cult of primeval 
times. When the 
Hindu gods were 
expelled from Java 
by the Moslem in- , 
vaders, they took | 
refuge in Bali, where 
they had to contend 
with the local de- 
mons, who fiercely 
resented the intru- 
sion. Then new 
thrones had to be 
erected for the refu- 
gees; but there 
being no mountains 
at that time in 
Bali, the four 
nearest hills in Java 
were brought over 
and set down in the 
four quarters and 
assigned to the 
different gods ac- 
cording to their pm,,, M'oW .mi,, E,l,uoi^ual ^!usn.>„, Rotladam 

respective ranks. i.ig, 134.— jAVANiisii woman 




The Borneans 

Neither Islam nor Hinduism ever made much progress in 
Borneo, so that most of the Dyaks and other aborigines are still in 
the wild state, addicted to head-hunting, cannibalism, and human 
sacrifices often attended with shocking barbarities. The object 
was to send messages to their dead relatives, and for this purpose 
the victim was tied up to p, tree, and after some preliminary singing 



2l6 



The 'Wofld*s Peoples 



and dancing one after another would stick a spear an inch or so 
into his body, each sending a message to his deceased friend as he 
did so. The Borneans are saturated with superstitions; every 
pool, every tree, every rock is the home of some demon, and all 
mysterious noises in the forest are ghostly whisperings. But head- 
hunting is the most indispensable of all social and religious ob- 
servances. No girl will look at a wooer before he has laid a head 

or two at her feet ; no house 
is blest which is not sanc- 
tified with a row of skulls ; 
and nobody need hope for 
bUss hereafter unless he or 
some friend has added to 
the collection. In the native 
cosmogony there was no- 
thing at first but sky and 
water, when a huge rock fell 
from above, and got covered 
with soil on which grew a 
great tree, and this was fol- 
lowed by a coiling vine which 
twined round the tree. The 
result of the union were a 
man and a woman, parents 
of all the natives, and also 
of Tokong, father of head- 
hunting. The after-world is 
underground and, like the 
Greek Hades, has its Charon 
and its Styx, a deep wide 
ditch swarming with worms 
and crossed by a big tree-stem, which is guarded by the great 
demon Maligang. By him all comers are challenged, and if they 
have no record of bravery, no store of captured heads, the tree is 
shaken until they fall into the ditch, to be tormented for ever by the 
worm that dieth not. 




Photo by Mr. Henry D. Ridley 

FIG. 135. — ^JAVANESE BOY (MALAYAN) 



The Battas and Nias Islanders 

Perhaps the acme of cruelty is reached by the Sumatran Battas, 
who open hostilities by burying a little boy up to \m neck in the 



Mongolic Division 



217 



ground as an offering to their war-god. After stuffing him with a 
mixture of ginger, red pepper, and salt until he is nearly raving 
mad with thirst, they induce him by the offer of a litde water to 
promise to plead the tribal cause in the next world, and then 
instead of water pour molten lead down his throat. These Battas 
are pagan cannibals, who have developed the doctrine of soul to 
its utmost limits. Their tendi is a second ego, a sort of double, 
which may leave and return to the body in life, and at death 




PAoto &>• J/r. C. B. K 

FIG. 136. — BATTAS OF LAKE TOBA, SUMATRA 
Are pagans and cannibals of low Malaj-an type 

becomes a begii (spirit or shade) on earth, or a dibatta (god) in the 
aerial spaces. There may be as many as seven such tendis, one 
of which after death is resolved into breath, or becomes wind 
returning to the universal soul of the world. Not only man, but 
animals and even plants have their tendis, and the rice tendi is a 
goddess who plays a great part in the creation myth. She is the 
maker of man, the creative and sustaining power of the universe, 
the All-life, the gracious mother of nature, these sublime cosmic 
notions being no doubt due to early Hindu teachings. 

The neighbouring Nias Islanders are both idol- and devil- 



2i8 The World's Peoples 

worshippers. But having no idea of a pure bodiless spirit, they 
make numerous stone and wooden statuettes as tutelar deities, or 
else guardians against sickness or other troubles. The chief god, 
Luhii-langi, dwells in the air, and is conceived as a tree blowing 
about and shedding fruits which become either spirits or men, 
according as they fall in space or on the ground. In fact he is the 
origin of everything, and from him comes nothing but good. But 
there are countless demons, authors of all woes, and in case of 
illness the wizard is sent for to " smell out " the particular spook who 
has caused the trouble. If he cannot be got rid of with the 
offering of a fowl, stronger measures are taken, and all doors are 
closed except one, through which he is expelled by cutting and 
slashing in all directions and making a tremendous uproar with 
much shouting, tam-tamming, and beating of pots and cans. South 
of Nias follow the Mentawey Islands, whose inhabitants are also 
plagued with demons ; and some of them have a curious notion that 
after death they go to a neighbouring islet called " Devil Island," 
because here all the souls become devils. Hence after the burial 
everybody makes off in great haste, fearing the return of the new- 
made demon. There are no religious rites beyond the inspection 
of birds' entrails to forecast the future, but much dancing ac- 
companies all festive gatherings, which appear to have a sacred 
character, since they wind up if possible with a human sacrifice, the 
victim being obtained by raiding a neighbouring island. Earth- 
quakes, the tides, eclipses, and other natural phenomena are due 
to sinister influences ; even the rainbow is a net cast out to ensnare 
mortals, and comets are ordinary stars with long tails to which 
devils cling, careering through space to strew the world with woes. 

The Malays Proper 

In the Malay Peninsula, where Hinduism never gained a footing, 
Islam is directly imposed on the old heathendom, which still often 
comes to the surface. Educated Malays themselves say that the 
people are the slaves of many strange customs and superstitions 
utterly opposed to Mohammedan teaching, and savouring strongly 
of devil-worship. Buffaloes are still slain near the mosques with 
much ceremony on religious occasions, and at the births, circum- 
cisions, marriages, and head shaving of the better classes. But the 
most striking survival from pagan times is the universal belief in 



Mongolic Division 219 

the were-wolf superstition, which here of course becomes the were- 
tiger (see p. 93). In Borneo there are wooden idols of tigers with 
indwelHng souls, real fetishes. But in Malacca the tiger himself is 
worshipped, and the belief that men assume his form at night is 
inextinguishable. Here we are still in the Middle Ages. " Magic 
and evil spirits, witchcraft and sorcery, spells and love-potions, 
charms and incantations are as much a matter of everyday life as 
are the miracle of growing rice and the mysteries of the repro- 
duction of species. The existence of the Malayan Loup Garou to 
the native mind is a fact and not a mere belief The Malay knoivs 
that it is true " (H. Clifford). One of the ways by which the Malay 
gets magic is to meet the ghost of a murdered man, for which a 
mystic ceremony has to be performed at his grave on a Tuesday at 
full moon. Then the person needing help conjures the departed 
spirit and states his case, and after a time an old man appears, to 
whom the request is repeated and is supposed to be ultimately 
granted. 

Physically the Malays proper may be described as of a modified 
Mongol type, softened by their oceanic environment, rather brown 
than yellow, with round head (index 78° to 85°), slightly projecting 
jaws and cheek-bones, rather small nose, often quite straight, with 
widish nostrils ; eyes black, straight or slightly oblique, with the 
Mongol fold, thickish and slightly protruding lips, rather small, 
slender, and delicate extremities, figure shapely, wiry, and under- 
sized (5 ft. to 5 ft. 4 or 5 in.). The temperament is very marked, 
being normally quiet, reserved, and taciturn, but under excitement 
subject to sudden fits of blind fury {amok) ; fairly intelligent, 
polite, and ceremonious, but uncertain, untrustworthy, and even 
treacherous ; daring, enterprising, and reckless ; musical ; callous 
and indifferent to physical pain in others. (For Malayo-Papuan 
mental contrasts, see p. 36.) The Malay is passionately fond of 
opium-smoking and a reckless gambler, betting over cock-fighting, 
the national pastime, and, as in Siam, often staking his personal 
freedom on the issue. But he is extremely frugal and most 
temperate, so that in Malaya the eating-house takes the place of our 
public-houses and is the chief place of resort. Here the modest 
bill of fare includes little more than dry rice, capsicums, bits and- 
scraps of meat and fish, cooked vegetables, and sweetmeats handed 
round with a cup of hot water. When they run amok and freely 
use the murderous kris, a short curved knife or dagger, they may 



220 



The World*s Peoples 



seem " the worse for drink," but are not so, being simply carried 
away by an unaccountable frenzied impulse. 



The Philippine Natives 

In the Philippine Archipelago, which passed from Spain to the 
United States in 1898, the Negrito aborigines (p. 67) have been 

nearly replaced by later Ma- 

I ^,__™.^._ _.^. ..„^.-.,^, ..„ layan intruders. Except in 

Mindanao, which is still mainly 
Moslem or heathen, the bulk 
of the settled populations — 
Tagalas, Bisayas, and many 
others — have long been nomi- 
nal Roman Catholics, who 
before the arrival of the 
Americans were administered 
more by the priests and regu- 
lars (Augustinians, Domini- 
cans, Jesuits) than by the civil 
ofificials. One result has been 
such a transformation of the 
subtle Malay character that 
those who know them best 
have described their tempera- 
ment as unfathomable. From 
the irksome Christian obser- 
vances they sought relief either 
by turning the many feast-days 
of the calendar into occasions 
of revelry and dissipation, or 
by secretly cherishing the old 
pagan beliefs. The native, wrote one of the padres, is an in- 
comprehensible phenomenon, the guiding motives of whose con- 
duct have never yet been and perhaps never will be discovered. 
He will serve a master faithfully for years, and then join a brigand 
band to murder the family and plunder the house. No kind of 
sympathy existed between the natives and their rulers, and the very 
children were taught to look on the whites as demons. The 
natives were officially classed as Jftdios, Infieles, and Moros, an 




Photo by Mr. Diamond, by permission of 
Mr. William Allen Reed 

FIG. 137. — NEGRITO OF PHILIPPINE 

ISLANDS 



Mongolia Division 



221 



ecclesiastical rather than a racial grouping. The Indios comprised 
the more or less cultured Christian populations of all the towns and 
settled rural districts, speaking several distinct Malayo-Polynesian 
languages, and numbering about 5,500,000. By Infieles were 
understood all the aborigines who were neither Christians nor 
Moros, that is, pagans generally in the wild state, and variously 
described as " savage," " degraded," "warlike," " ferocious," " blood- 
thirsty," "treacherous," or else "wild but timid," "peaceful," 
"docile and harmless," 
some Oraiig Benue 
(Malayan aborigines), 
some Caucasic Indo- 
nesians, some very 
much mixed, and col- 
lectively estimated at 
250,000. Under Moros 
(" Moors ") are com- 
prised all the Moham- 
medans of Mindanao, 
Palawan, and the Sulu 
Archipelago, some still 
independent and little 
removed from the 
savage state, numbering 
altogether perhaps 
500,000. Some of the 
Sulu Islanders get bap- 
tized now and then, 
but still keep their 
harems, and when asked 
how many gods are 
there, reply/?///-, meaning the Christian Trinity and Allah. Formerly 
fierce rovers and corsairs, the Sulu people are now kept in order by 
the American authorities, with whom the Sultan has made a treaty 
of peace. 

In Mindanao the Moslem contacts are not with Christianity, 
but with the old pagan beliefs, and here the genealogies of the 
Moro dynastic families are interwoven with curious legendary matter. 
One orthodox Sultan claims descent from unions with houris 
sent down from heaven, and another from a native princess found 




Photo by Mr. Martin, by pc-rmissioit of Professor Alherl 
Ernest jenks, Chief of the Ethtwlogical Survey, Manila 

FIG. 138.— A FILIPINO 
Malayan stock 



222 



The WofId*s Peoples 



inside a bamboo stalk. Some bamboos were being cut down to 
build a fish corral, and when the last was felled, out stepped a little 
girl whose finger was wounded by the axe which had cut through 
the stem. From her is sprung the present Bwayan dynasty. These 
Moros also believe in the Balbal vampire, a huge night bird, 
who is really a human being who is thus transformed at night 
and devours dead people, but does not prey on the living like 
. . the European vampires. But 

,_-™.,™_, „ ^^ detested is the monster that 

in the local code any one 
calling another balbal is heavily 
fined (N. M. Saleeby, Moro 
History, etc., Manila, 1905). 

The Formosans 



In Formosa the relations 
are again changed, and here, 
besides numerous Chinese 
settlers on the west side, the 
central and eastern uplands 
are occupied by Indonesian 
and Malayan aborigines classed 
in three social divisions : i. 
The PepohwanSj called " Bar- 
barians," although quite as 
civilised as their Chinese 
neighbours. They are a fine 
race, very tall and " fetishists," 
though the mysterious rites are 
left to the women. 2. The 
Sekhwans (" Tame Savages "), 




Photo by Mr. Diamond, by permission of 
Mr. William Allen Reed 

FIG. 139. — NEGRITO OF THE 

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
The same in profile as Fig. 137 



also half-civilised agriculturists, but physically distinct from all the 
other natives, with remarkably long and prominent teeth, large 
mouth, thick lips, and light colour. Amongst them were found 
some old (Dutch ?) books and other curious documents, which 
perhaps suggested to the impostor George Psalmanazar his spurious 
" Formosan Grammar." 3. The Chinhwans (" Green Barbarians "), 
utter savages, who resemble the Japanese so closely that when 
dressed like them one cannot be distinguished from the other. 



Mongolic Division 223 

The vendetta is rife amongst the ruder tribes, some of whom are 
suspected of cannibah'sm, while others are predatory head-hunters. 
Such is the traditional hatred of their former Chinese rulers that 
no one can either be tatooed or allowed to wear a bracelet until he 
has carried off a Celestial head or two. In all the houses these 
heads are mounted on frames or brackets, and some of the warriors 
can point to over seventy of such trophies. With their new Japan- 
ese rulers (since 1895) they have sworn friendship, regarding 
them as their " brothers and sisters." The oath of eternal alliance 




11;. 140. — nOVA SCHOOLBOYS, >rADAGASCAR 
The cultured Hovas are all Christians 

is taken by digging a hole in the ground, putting a stone in it, 
throwing earth at each other, and then covering the stone with 
the earth, which means that "as long as the stone in the ground 
keeps sound, so long shall we keep our word unbroken." 

The Malagasy 
In Madagascar the relations are altogether unique. Here we 
have a great mass of Negro or Bantu peoples leavened in varying 
proportions by a Malayan element, and all without exception 
speaking closely related dialects of a common Malayo-Polynesian 
language. How this came about, how the immigrants from 



224 



The World^s Peoples 



the adjacent mainland should have completely forgotten their 
expressive Bantu tongues, and adopted the speech of a few 
intruders from across the Indian Ocean, it is no longer possible 
to say, but the fact is unquestioned and firmly established by 

all competent ob- 
servers. The Hovas 
of the north central 
districts are the do- 
minant people, and 
also show the largest 
infusion of Malay 
blood ; in fact are 
inclined to resent the 
suggestion that there 
is a black strain at 
all in their compo- 
sition. But it reveals 
itself both in their 
dark colour, tall 
stature, suspiciously 
frizzly hair, which 
should be quite 
straight, and round 
head (85°), which 
should be long. 
Their claim, how- 
ever, to be regarded 
as a civilised people 
professing the Pro- 
testant religion can- 
not be contested. 
The Hovas live in 
large towns con- 
structed on the 
European model or else in well-appointed farmsteads, where they 
till the land with much skill, and have also made considerable 
progress in the industrial arts. All are educated, and the majority 
can read both their own and the English language, and the An- 
tananarivo Annual, an excellent English periodical, is entirely set 
up and printed by native craftsmen (Fig. 140). 




FIG. 141.— SAKALAVA \\ARRIORS, MADAGASCAR 
Dominant along the West Coast 



Mongolic Division 225 

Of the other Malagasy peoples a few are also Christians, but 
the great bulk are still pagans often little removed from the savage 
state. In fact the Ibaras and others are described as "Africans 
pure and simple " in everything except their speech, large-boned 
and muscular, very tall (average 6 ft.), with flat nose, thick lips, 
and hair invariably crisp or woolly. They have a rich oral 
literature, comprising legends, fables, songs, riddles, and a great 
mass of folklore often showing close analogies with the European, 
so much so that one might be called a variant of our " Beauty 
and the Beast." In their religious notions they reflect both Malay 
and African contacts. From Malaysia was probably introduced 
the belief in a Supreme Being worshipped in association with the 
Gods of the Four Winds. In Robert Drury's time (eighteenth century) 
these deities were invoked in all solemn oaths, thus : "'I swear 
by the great God above, by the Four Gods of the Four Quarters, 
by the spirits of my forefathers, etc' At their meals they took 
a bit of meat and threw it over their heads, saying, * There's a 
bit for the Spirit ' ; then they cut four more little bits, and threw 
to the Lords of the Four Quarters of the Earth " (Drury). 



15 



CHAPTER VII 
AMERICAN {AMERIND) OR RED DIVISION 

Nomenclature (p. 226)— Origia and Antiquity (p. 226) — Independent Evolution 
of Amerind Culture (p. 227) — The Common Amerind and Asiatic Mytho- 
logies (p. 229) — American Shamanism (p. 230) — The Amerind Pantheons : 
no Supreme Being (p. 231) — The Amerind's After-life (p. 233) — The 
Amerind Temperament (p. 235)— Cannibalism (p. 237) — The Wampum 
(p. 238) —Gesture Language (p. 240) — Habitations (p. 241) — Architecture 
(p. 244). 

Nomenclature 

WHEN Columbus reached the New World he thought he had 
circumnavigated the globe and thus arrived at India by a 
new (western) route, hence called the land " India" and the people 
" Indians." This is why we still speak of the " West Indies " and 
of the " American Indians." But ethnologists have always felt that 
this last was an absurd expression, and as they could not quite get 
rid of it, the contracted form Amerind, that is, " American-Indian," 
has recently (1899) been proposed as a compromise, and, owing to 
its convenience, has met with general favour, hence is here also 
adopted at least as an alternative for the really more correct 
" American aborigines," or "American natives." It has the further 
advantage of lending itself to much-needed derivatives, such as 
Amerindia, Amerindian, and several others, which are already in 
current use, and seem indispensable, especially since America and 
American have become almost synonymous with the United States 
and its citizens. 

Origin and Antiquity 

As we have seen that the Human Family is one, with one 
centre of dispersion (Australasia), it follows that the Amerinds are 
not true aborigines, but must have reached their present insular 

226 



American (Amerind) or Red Division 227 

home (for America is an island) from some part or parts of the 
Eastern Hemisphere in very remote pre-glacial or inter-glacial times. 
Amid a great uniformity in the physical and a greater in the mental 
characters, there are considerable differences in the details — round 
and long heads, tall and short figures, red-brown or yellow colour 
(see p. 22) — that seem to imply at least two original elements, the 
partial fusion of which has resulted in the present Amerind race. 
Thus in Patagonia F. P. Outes has recently (1904) described several 
Old Stone stations and two Pleistocene types — a long-headed 
arriving from the north-east and a round-headed from the 
north-west. The routes and the races thus indicated could 
scarcely be any other than the palaeolithic long-heads from 
Europe by the since vanished land-connections between Britain, 
the Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland, and the 
neolithic round-heads from Asia by the narrow Bering Strait with 
its insular stepping-stones formerly more extensive than at present. 
The x^siatics appear to have arrived a little later, but in larger 
bodies, which explains the predominance of round heads and low 
stature along the Pacific seaboard from Alaska to Chili. But inter- 
minglings were inevitable, and the result is that the Amerinds as a 
whole are a composite race, in which the Mongolic (Asiatic) traits 
are scarcely more marked than the Caucasic (European). On this 
important point Dr. Paul Ehrenreich, speaking with special 
authority, remarks that the American blend is a product of the 
soil, a race siii ge?ieris, in any case differing no more from Europeans 
than from Asiatics. The most outstanding characters are threefold 
— the very long black hair of the horsetail type, universal and due 
to the Mongol connection ; the large, straight, and even aquiline 
nose, also very general and due to the Caucasic connection ; and 
the so-called polysynthetic order of speech (see p. 23) locally 
evolved from germs everywhere common to early man in Pleistocene 
times. 

Independent Evolution of Amerind Culture 

If therefore the Amerind race has been developed from these 
rude beginnings in their present home, it would seem necessarily to 
follow that their arts and industries and general culture were also 
developed in the same region independently of all extraneous 
influences. Yet since the time of A. von Humboldt, who here 
blundered, no question has been more hotly disputed than this of 



228 



The Wofld's Peoples 



the origin and sources of the native cultures. The "Asiatic School," 
as it has been called, traces everything to the East, from the Central 
American calendric systems to the Mexican pyramids, from the 

northern Sha- 
manism to the 
Peruvian Sun- 
worship, from 
Plato's Atlantis 
to the ten tribes 
of Israel, "I 
am fully con- 
vinced," wrote 
Humboldt, 
" that the art of 
time- reckoning, 
the cosmogo- 
nies, and many 
native myths 
present striking 
analogies with 
the notions pre- 
valent in East 
Asia." This 
was the starting- 
point, and on 
the authority 
of the great 
naturalist a 
theory of 
Eastern origins 
has been built 
up which crum- 
bles to dust at 
the touch of 
sober criticism. 

Thus there is no resemblance at all between the American and 
Mongol or Tibetan calendars, or between the Egyptian and 
Mexican pyramids, which are not pyramids at all in the Egyptian 
sense. The legend of the fabulous land of Fusang visited by 
Chinese Buddhists is exploded, and a few Chinese or Japanese 




Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldi, New York 

FIG. 142. — SIOUAN SQUAW 
The hard masculine look is characteristic 



American (Amerind) or Red Division 229 

junks stranded at long intervals on the western seaboard could have 
obviously had no kind of influence on the already civilised peoples 
of the interior. 

The junks are important in another way, for they bring out the 
fact that the natives had no ships, boats, outriggers, or any other 
sailing craft, at all comparable to those of the East, and without 
them how did they cross the oceans in their crazy rafts, dug-outs, 
and birch-bark canoes, and reach the New World in historic times, 
as is the supposition ? 

In America there were no Old World domestic animals such 
as sheep, goats, poultry, pigs, cattle, or horses ; no cereals such 
as wheat, barley, rice, or oats, nothing but maize ; no silk, tea, 
coffee, iron, not even a lamp except that borrowed by the Eskimo 
from the Norsemen, or any other Eastern cultural appliances 
whatever. Did the civilised Asiatic immigrants leave all these 
indispensable commodities behind them, and start fresh as from the 
Stone Ages ? Such a voluntary relapse into savagery is unthinkable ; 
but even so the racial types must have persisted, and one asks, 
where in America are these early or late Phoenician, Egyptian, 
Malay, Chinese or other civilised and specialised Asiatic settlers? 
Where, too, the linguistic affinities, the loan words (not one has been 
found), the Egyptian or Chinese hieroglyphs, the Babylonian 
cuneiforms, the Phoenician alphabet, or other Oriental scripts ? Not 
one tangible link has ever come to light to connect the cultures of 
the Old and New Worlds. May we not safely conclude with the 
late J. W. Powell, an honour to American science, that "there 
is no evidence that any one of the arts of the American Indians 
was borrowed from the Orient " ; that "stone implements and many 
other things are found in the latest Pleistocene deposits of valleys 
and plains everywhere throughout America " ; " that the industrial 
arts of America were born in America, America was inhabited 
by tribes at the time of the beginning of the industrial arts. They 
left the Old World before they had learned to make knives, spear 
and arrowheads, or at least when they knew the art only in its 
crudest state. Thus primitive man has been here ever since the 
invention of the stone knife and the stone hammer." 

The Common Amerind and Asiatic Mythologies 

But when Powell adds that the Amerind did not derive his 
mythological notions from the Old World but developed them in 



230 The "World's Peoples 

the New, the statement can be accepted to its fullest extent only by 
shifting the ethnological parting line with Franz Boas so as to take 
in the section of North-east Asia " extending from the lower part of 
the Kolyma river to Gishiga bay." 

From the Chukchis, Koryaks and other aborigines of this region 
Mr. Bogoras of the Jesup expedition has collected and published 
over five hundred oral documents which place beyond doubt the 
identity of the great body of folklore and mythologies on both sides 
of the Bering waters. The agreement extends to the minutest 
details, and on the American side ranges down the coast as far as 
British Columbia. In the creation myth it is Kutk, the Raven, 
that everywhere plays the chief part. On both sides, he is creator 
of the world and of man ; he is the Lucifer, the light-bearer, from 
whom spring sun, moon, and stars ; he has made the rivers and the 
seas, and peopled the earth with animals. And when his work is 
done, he becornes the Thunder-bird, who lives in heaven wrapt in 
clouds. Such appears to be the real genesis of the Thunder-bird, 
who dominates in the lake region and about the headwaters of the 
Missouri and Mississippi valleys, and is also heard of as far north 
as Alaska. But farther east, amongst the Iroquoian and east 
Algonquian tribes, he becomes the beneficent Thunder-people, 
human in form and mind, usually four in number, and always 
staunch friends of mankind (J. N. B. Hewitt). 

American Shamanism 

In America the Asiatic term Shaman, although freely used by 
popular writers, does not occur. But the system exists, and is repre- 
sented by the tungaks in Alaska, and elsewhere by many other names. 
But compared with his Asiatic brother, the tungak is an inferior 
being, little more than a conjurer, or medicine-man, like those who 
in Africa " smell out " the witches and other evil-doers. Although 
sometimes regarded as mediators with the invisible world, it is 
difficult to say whether any of the Amerinds believe in the actual 
control of spirits by the conjurers. Along the north-west coast they 
are credited with the power of charming away life by the use of 
certain spells and incantations, though they may also be called 
upon to drive out the evil spirit which haunts the sick man. Other 
functions are the removal of the scalp of the slain in battle, or the 
carrying out of the death sentence, by bewitching or poisoning the 



American (Amerind) or Red Division 231 

condemned person. In some districts the office appears to be 
inherited, and cases are reported of Shamans so thoroughly ashamed 
of their equivocal position as to warn their sons from accepting the 
discredited office. All observers assure us that they never take 
part in, conduct, or preside at sacrificial rites to gods or ancestors, 
or venture to propitiate evil spirit, whereas this, as we have seen, is 
one of the essential functions of the Siberian Shaman. But many 
are adepts at conjuring tricks, and F. Boas describes a scene in 
which a female performer invites the people to kill her, when " she 
is placed on a seat behind the fire and one of her attendants 
complies with her request. He will appear to drive a wedge through 
her head from one temple to the other. The wedge is first shown 
to the people, and then secretly exchanged for another which con- 
sists of two parts attached to a wooden band that is slipped over 
her head and covered with hair. Thus it seems that the butt is 
standing out on one side, the point having passed through her skull. 
At the same time bladders containing blood, which are attached to 
the band, are burst, and the blood is seen to flow down the face." 

One baneful effect of the system was the support given by its 
members to the delusion that sickness was always caused by invisible 
agencies, or by witchcraft. Their so-called medical practice was a 
horrible system of sorcery, and to such superstition human life was 
sacrificed on an enormous scale. The sufferers were given over 
to priest-doctors, to be tormented, bedevilled, and destroyed ; and 
a universal belief in witchcraft led to the killing of all suspected 
people, and engendered blood-feuds on a gigantic scale. In the 
treatment of ailments the medicine-men were left very much to their 
own devices ; nor were the Shamanist functions anywhere very 
clearly defined. On the whole the American tungak, to generalise 
the word, may be regarded as a sort of Asiatic Shaman in embryo, 
arriving, hke the mythologies, in the late Stone Age, and afterwards 
diverging in various directions from his Siberian prototype. 

The Amerind Pantheons. No Supreme Being 

As a rule the native pantheons are not numerous, and almost 
since the Discovery the question has been discussed whether any of 
these pantheons culminated in a Zeus, a Jove, a real Supreme Being. 
In the Maya codices Dr. P. Schellhas could find only about fifteen 
figures of gods in human form, and about half as many in animal 



23: 



The World*s Peoples 



form — the Death-god, the Moon, Night, Sun, War, Snake, Water, and 
Storm-gods, but no chief god, and this picture is also largely applic- 
able to the Aztec Olympus, heightened by an extra element of terror- 
ism. Yet these ruthless barbarians, who had developed the most 
sanguinary ritual of which there is any record, are credited with the 
lofty concept of a King of Kings, TonacatecutH, the one true god, 
maker of the world, the Supreme Lord, to whom no offerings were 

made because he needed 
none. But in so de- 
scribing him the early in- 
terpreters appear to have 
been biassed in this as 
in several other matters 
by Christian influences, 
and it is more probable 
that Tonacatecutli was a 
later invention of the 
Aztec sceptics, the out- 
come of philosophic 
speculation. 

The more primitive 
systems cannot boast of 
more than five or six 
gods, and in 1616 the 
Virginian Algonquians 
told Captain Argoll that 
they had only five gods 
in all. " Our chief god 
appears often unto us in 
the form of a mighty great 
hare ; the other four have 
no visible shape, but are indeed the four winds which keep the 
four corners of the earth." Frequent reference is made to these four 
invisible powers, bringers of rain and sunshine, rulers of the seasons 
and the weather, with a fifth greater than all, who is the Manito of 
the early writers, and is described by the missionaries as the Creator, 
the Supreme Being, the true god of these " monotheistic " aborigines. 
But this Manito is the Devil of the New Jersey natives, and in the 
Delaware Walam Oluiti there are all kinds of manitos, especially an 
evil manito, who makes evil beings only — monsters, flies, gnats, and 




Photo by Dr. R'. W. Shufeldt 

FIG. 143.— ALGONQUIAN INDIAN 



American (Amerind) or Red Division 233 

such like. In fact the word simply means ghost or spirit, but served 
to translate the God or Jehovah, and in its plural form, the gods of 
the Bible. 

Appeal is made to the IVakanda of the Dgtkotans, who is also 
supposed to rank as head of their pantheon. But Mr. W. J. McGee 
has made it clear that he is not a personality at all, much less a 
deity, but a vague essence or subtle force like the Polynesian Afana, 
which inheres in certain objects, and makes them efficacious for 
good or evil. Even a man, especially a Shaman, may be wakanda ; 
so too the fetishes, and the ceremonial objects and decorations, 
various animals, the horse among the prairie tribes, many natural 
objects and places of striking character, such as frowning cliffs, roar- 
ing torrents, gloomy gorges, snowy crests. 

In the far south the only claimant to supremacy is the Sun 
worshipped by the Peruvian Incas, and here it is curious to note 
that one of the Incas had his doubts about the divinity of the solar 
orb which might only be an emblem, as held by the Persian Zoro- 
astrians. There was, however, a mysterious being, an " Unknown 
God," worshipped under the name of Pachacamac, and perhaps 
comparable to the Aztec Tonacatecutli. Their Araucanian neigh- 
bours of the extreme south (Chili), most independent of mortals, 
scorned the control of supernatural agencies, although they had a 
dim notion of two principles of Good and Evil which regulated mun- 
dane affairs between them. But the Araucanians had developed one 
binding force rooted in a profound veneration for their forefathers, 
who after death were translated to the Milky Way, and from that 
vantage-ground continued to watch over the conduct of their children. 
And this simple belief amply sufficed to keep them in good order, 
and to maintain the tribal customs in full vigour. For who would 
dare to offend in these matters under the peering eyes of their 
revered forefathers? Thus were dispensed with the rewards and 
punishments which supply the motive of conduct in so many 
more developed religious systems. 

The Amerind's After-life 

But this view of the after-life was quite exceptional, and the 
almost universal notion was that the life beyond the grave was a 
purely natural continuation of the present, generally freed from 
its cares and troubles. Cloudland is not a supernatural abode, 



234 The World*s Peoples 

but only a distant part of this world, which is better than the tribal 
territory, and in which the departed continue to live in a state of 
absolute material comfort and happiness, exempt from all present 
anxieties, and, so to. say, without a thought for the morrow. Thus 
the natives of British Guiana " look on the spirit-world as exactly 
parallel to, or more properly as a part of, the material world known 
to them. Spirits, like material beings, differ from each other only 
in their varying degrees of brute force and brute cunning, and none 
are distinguished by the possession of anything like divine attributes. 
Indians therefore regard disembodied spirits not otherwise than 
the beings still in the body whom they see around them " (Sir 
Everard im Thurn). 

The essential point is that men remain men in the after-world, 
where they continue to follow their ordinary pursuits under more 
pleasant conditions. Thus the Eskimo has his cayak, his harpoons, 
and great schools of seals and whales ; the prairie Indian his 
tomahawk, his bows and arrows, and countless herds of bisons, 
and so on. 

This is the original view, common to all the more primitive 
peoples. But with the elevation of the moral order, the distinction 
between right and wrong, there arises the notion of rewards and 
penalties, from which follows the recognition of two separate depart- 
ments — one for the good, who are usually left in cloudland ; the other 
for the wicked, who are more often consigned to the nether world, 
while both are at times despatched to the same shadowy region 
of difficult access beyond the grave. Thus the Saponi (Eastern 
Siouans) hold that after death both good and bad people are 
conducted by a strong guard into a great road, along which they 
journey together for some time, till the road branches into two 
paths, one extremely level, the other rugged and mountainous. 
Here they are parted by a flash of lightning, the good taking to 
the right, while the bad are hurried away to the left. The right-hand 
road leads to a delightful warm land of perennial spring, where 
the people are bright as stars and the women never nag. Here 
are deer, turkeys, elks, and bisons innumerable, always fat and 
gentle, while the trees yield delicious fruits all the year round. The 
stony left-hand path leads to a dark and wintry land covered with 
perpetual snow, where the trees yield nothing but icicles. Here 
the wicked are tormented a certain number of years, according to 
their several degrees of guilt, and then sent back to the world 



American (Amerind) or Red Division 235 

to give them a chance of meriting a place next time in the happy 
hunting-grounds of the good people (James Mooney), Here 
Buddhist influences might be suspected if Buddhist preachers could 
have ever reached these parts. As it is, the parallelism must be 
regarded as a mere coincidence. 

The Iroquois after-world has recently been glorified by the 
inspired verse of Miss Pauline Johnson, herself an Iroquois 
(Tekehionwake), who thus sings of the departed Amerinds' Happy 
Hunting-grounds : 

Into the rose-gold Westlaiid its yellow prairies roll, 

World of the bison's freedom, home of the Indian's soul. 

Roll out, O seas, in sunlight bathed, 

Your plains wind-tossed, and grass-enswathed. . . . 

Who would his lovely faith condole? 

Who envies not the Redskin's soul 

Sailing into the cloudland, sailing into the sun. 

Into the crimson portals ajar when life is done ? 

{The White Wampum, 1906.) 

The Amerinds' Temperament 

In their mental qualities, as illustrated by their industrial 
arts, social institutions, and ethical standards, the Amerinds stand 
even wider apart from their Eurasian progenitors than is the 
case with their physical characters. In these respects the ruder 
northerners show to great advantage over the more cultured 
peoples of Central and South America, while the uncultured 
natives of these regions stand at the very lowest depths of savage 
life. Our general impression of the northern " Redskins " is that 
of a kind of human demon or wild animal, never to be trusted, 
unable to keep a compact, and always thirsting for blood. But 
this is a distorted picture, and if treated fairly they will be generally 
found loyal to their pledged word. The Iroquois League maintained 
the 'covenant chain " with the English unbroken for over a century; 
the Delawares never broke faith with Penn ; and for two hundred 
years the Hudson Bay Company have traded all over the northern 
part of the continent without a serious rupture with the Chippewyan, 
Kree, and the other rude Athabascan and Algonquian tribes. 
" We are blind to our own shortcomings and exaggerate those 
of the Amerind. In estimating their traits we do not regard 
them enough from their own standpoint, and without so regarding 



236 



The Woi:'ld*s Peoples 



them we cannot understand them.. His daily Kfe in the earUer 
days was by no means bloodthirsty, and the scalping-knife was 
no more the emblem of pre-Colombian society than the bayonet is 

of ours. In most lo- 
calities he achieved 
for all what all are 
with us still dream- 
ing to obtain — 
liberty and a living 
— and his methods 
of government pos- 
sessed admirable 
qualities " (Dellen- 
baugh). 

Outstanding fea- 
tures of the racial 
temperament, which 
are everywhere con- 
spicuous from Alaska 
to Argentina, are a 
grave demeanour, 
slow action, few 
words, wariness in 
the face of danger, 
and a pulse less 
rapid. The ideal 
hero of romance is 
grave, solemn, cau- 
tious, reserved, ob- 
servant beneath an 
outward show of in- 
difference, steeled by 
long inheritance and 
discipline to inflict 
or endure the most 
terrible of fates, 
death by slow and 
excruciating torture. "We saw four Indians," writes Mr. E. F. 
Knight, " come stealthily down to the bank [of the Paraguay] 
armed with long lances. Then, lying down among the reeds^ 




Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 



FIG. 144. — SrOUAN CHIEF 
In full " war paint " 



Ameficari (Amerind) oi* Red Division 237 

they gazed silently into the water till they saw some big fish 
pass by, when, with wonderful skill, they speared them one after 
the other; then lit a fire, roasted the fish and devoured them. 
This done, they picked up their weapons, and crept back into 
the woods as noiselessly as they had come. The whole time — 
some three hours — not one of these men spoke a word." 

Cannibalism 

As the question of Cannibalism is often raised, it may be stated 
that in the north it was never very prevalent, and even in Mexico 
assumed a somewhat ceremonious aspect. But in South America 
and the West Indies it was widely practised by many of the Carib, 
Colombian, Amazonian, and Brazilian tribes without any such 
rehgious motive. Thus the Catios of the Atrato river were re- 
ported by the early observers to " fatten their captives for the 
market." Their Darien neighbours stole the women of hostile 
tribes, cohabited with them, and brought up the children till their 
fourteenth year, when they were eaten with much rejoicing, the 
mothers ultimately sharing the same fate. The Cocomas of the Upper 
Amazons ate their own dead, grinding the bones to drink in their 
fermented liquor, and explaining that " it was better to be inside a 
friend than to be swallowed up in the cold earth." The very word 
cannibal is a variant of caribal derived from the man-eating Caribs, 
and so universal was the custom in New Granada that " the living 
were the grave of the dead; for the husband has been seen to 
eat his wife, the brother his brother or sister, the son his father; 
captives also were roasted and eaten. But the lowest depths of 
the horrible were reached by the widespread East Brazilian Tapuya 
savages, Botocudos and others, as well as by some of the primitive 
Guarani tribes of Paraguay. The details, which are too repulsive to be 
recorded here, will be found in ^tQinraetz^s, Endokanfiibalis7nus,-p. 19. 

But it would seem that the practice is or was far more prevalent 
amongst the northern Amerinds than has been suspected, and 
the Slaves, the Dog-Ribs and the Hares of the Athapascan family 
have a specially bad reputation in this respect. John McLean 
mentions the case of a member of the Slave tribe, who, having 
first destroyed his wife, packed up her remains as so much pro- 
visions for his journey, helping himself regularly to part of them 
as he went along. The supply running short, one of the children 



238 The World^s Peoples 

was next sacrificed, and eventually only one boy of seven or eight 
years remained, whom he was afterwards found devouring just as 
help was being brought to him. Another Slave is mentioned who 
had eaten twelve or thirteen persons including his own parents, one 
wife and the children of two. Once a native becomes a man-eater, 
perhaps through necessity, he acquires an unwholesome taste for 
his new diet, and then he is a marked man even among his 
tribesmen, who will often get rid of him in his sleep, or by a stray 
bullet or an arrow from behind. The Dog-Ribs were reputed 
to be originally cannibals who on any scarcity arising would at 
once cast lots for victims, and one of them returning from a 
day's hunting found his mother busy roasting the body of her 
own child, his younger brother (F. A. G. Morice, The Great Dene 
Race). 

The Wampum 

Although the Northern Amerinds possessed no writing system 
in the strict sense, certainly nothing comparable to the pictorial 
documents of the Aztecs and Mayas, nothing in fact beyond the 
rude " winter counts " of the Dakotas and others, nevertheless they 
had a means of recording events, signing treaties, and applicable 
to other purposes, which has the merit of being of absolutely native 
origin. Nothing has elsewhere been discovered at all resembling 
the wampum, which was originally a mere ornament, a kind of 
girdle or belt made of strings of shell-beads varying in number and 
colour, and put together horizontally in divers ways. Later different 
patterns and designs were worked into the layers, and the wampum 
thus became a valuable object which could be used as money, or 
as documentary evidence in tribal transactions, as, for instance, the 
treaty between the Uelawares and William Penn, and might jeven 
acquire magic virtue, as in Longfellow's character — invulnerable 
because 

"Clad from head to foot in wampum." 

Hiawatha, TX. 

Once when two hostile tribes, exhausted with a long war, met 
to make peace, the welcoming chief, producing a wampum, thus 
addressed his late opponent : 

" Brother, with this belt I open your ears that you may hear ; 
I take care and trouble from your hearts ; I extract from your feet 
the thorns which pierced them when you rode hither ; I cleanse 



American (Amerind) or Red Division 239 

the seats of the assembly-hall that you may sit comfortably ; I wash 
your head and your bodies that you may be refreshed; I bewail 
with you the loss of the friends that have died since the last time 
we came together ; I wash away all the blood that may have been 
shed between us." 

This courteous opening, in which the delicate and dignified 
feelings of the Amerind are conspicuous, was followed by the 
usual deliberations, and the interchange of wampums that served 
as a perpetual memorial of the event. 

The various colours of the shell-beads may at first have led to 
their being put together as personal badges, so to say, as proofs of 
ownership of the belt, and as a means of identifying the wearer. 
Exchanges also may very likely have taken place to cement friend- 
ship, as here to conclude a treaty. In any case, it is certain that 
the wampum had acquired an extraordinary degree of importance, 
that from it was in those days evolved a certain kind of script, 
that the in-wrought patterns could, so to say, be read, although 
the meaning of these curious "texts" had for the most part been 
lost before Europeans began to study and interpret them. 

Lafitau reproduces a scene in which two parties to the signing 
of a treaty are seated each in a row on two sides of an open space. 
In the background between them is seen a chief, who is addressing 
the assembly while holding a wampum in his hand. Three others 
lie at his feet, and in the foreground is a fifth, much larger than 
the others, but less legible. Xo doubt the incidents themselves 
were worked in ornamentally, and when the belts were interchanged, 
each party carried off a documentary proof of the transaction, just 
as with our treaties and other agreements analogous documents are 
interchanged bearing the signatures of both contracting parties. 
Morgan tells us that amongst the Iroquois there was a " custodian 
of the archives,' a chief who held the hereditary oflice of wampum- 
keeper, and whose duty it was not only himself to preserve the 
meaning of each belt, but also to take care that this knowledge 
should be kept alive among the people. For this purpose at a 
fixed time of the year the belts were brought out of the "Record- 
office,"' and exhibited to the whole community. Then the history 
and the meaning of each were again read over ; and this custom is 
still observed. 

Nor was it always belts alone that carried these records. .\t 
times simple cords or strings of beads not wrought into wampums 



240 The Wofld's Peoples 

were used for the purpose. Thus, when a new chief was installed 
he was handed ten rows of white beads as a record of the event. 
On the other hand, when a chief died, the people wore mourning 
which consisted of ten rows of black strings. But if he was only 
a subordinate chief, ten short rows sufficed. 

Gesture Language 

Besides articulate speech and the wampum, the Amerinds had 
another means of communication — gesture language, which is more 
or less common to all peoples, but was carried to greater perfection 
by the North Americans than by any other uncultured aborigines. 
There can be no doubt that articulate and gesture language were 
simultaneously evolved, since one differs from the other only in 
this, that the former appeals to the sense of hearing, the latter 
to that of vision. Primitive man, always a social being congre- 
gating in family and tribal groups, expressed his thought by speech 
and gesture, and as speech expanded with the infinite capabilities 
of the vocal organs, gesture fell more and more into abeyance, and 
now survives only amongst the lower and some of the more 
emotional higher races. In this respect it is interesting to notice 
the wide difference that exists between the Englishman, who has 
almost lost the art, and the Italian, especially the Neapolitan, who 
can perform a stage pantomime without words that will be perfectly 
intelligible to his audience. 

So also the Northern Amerind can keep up a wordless con- 
versation with a stranger, and make communications to people of 
whose language he is ignorant, without opening his mouth. Thus 
Dr. Hoffmann tells that in this way the Hidatsa chief " Lean 
Wolf" informed him that "four years ago the American people 
contracted friendship with us ; but they lied. Finished ! " This 
was expressed with six gestures, thus : 

1. On the left side of his forehead he placed his closed hand 
with the thumb resting on the middle of the index finger, palm 
downward, and then raised the thumb a little way to the right 
above his head. That meant " White man." 

2. About fifteen inches before the right side of the body he 
placed the naturally outspread hand, fingers and thumb a little apart 
and pointed to the left, and moved it at a short distance from 
himself. That meant "With us." 



American (Amerind) or Red Division 



241 



3. He stretched out the palm of the right hand, as if he wanted 
to grasp the hand of some other person. That meant " Friends." 

4. The right hand, with all fingers apart save the thumb, he 
brought back to the front of the body, to within eighteen inches 
of the right shoulder. 
That meant " Four." 

5. He shut the 
right hand, leaving 
the index and middle 
finger a little apart 
and outstretched. 
He placed it with the 
back turned outwards 
about eight inches 
before the right side 
of the body, and 
with it rapidly made 
a slight downward 
curve. That meant 
" Lies." 

6. He brought 
the clenched fists 
together before his 
breast, palms down- 
wards, and then, 
separating them, 
brought them with 
an outward curve to 
both sides. That 
meant " Finished." 

Habitations 




Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufcldi, New York 

FIG. 145. — ALGONQUIN 
Still numerous in Quebec Province 



Amongst the 
Northern Amerinds 
there are two distinct types of dwellings, the single or family 
house, and the communal house. The latter, such as that of 
the Iroquois tribes, was 50 to 100 feet long by 16 to 18 feet 
wide, with frame of poles, and with sides and triangular roof 
covered with bark, usually of the elm. The interior was divided 
into compartments, and a smoke-hole left in the roof. A Mohican 

16 



242 The 'W"orId*s Peoples 

house similar in form, 60 by 14 feet, had the sides and roof 
made of rushes and chestnut bark, with an opening along the 
top of the roof from end to end. The circular communal house 
of the Mandans was usually about 40 feet in diameter, and sup- 
ported by two series of posts and crossbeams, while the wide 
roof and sloping sides were covered with brush or willow matting 
and earth, with the fireplace in the centre. The oblong round-roof 
houses of the Virginia and Carolina houses described by Captain John 
Smith appear to have been of the communal order, since it is dis- 
tinctly stated that some of them accommodated a number of families. 
To the same class probably belonged the circular dome-shaped 
earth lodges of Sacramento Valley and the L-form, tent-shaped, 
thatched lodges of the high grounds in California. But the most 
conspicuous examples of communal dwellings are the large, sometimes 
massive, many-celled clusters of stone or adobe of the Puebloans 
in New Mexico and Arizona. These dwellings vary in form, some of 
those built in prehistoric times being semicircular, others oblong 
enclosing a court or plaza. They were usually in terrace form, the 
lower having a one-storey tier of apartments, the next two storeys, 
and so on to the uppermost tier, which sometimes constituted a 
seventh storey. The outer walls of the lowest storey, sometimes 
5 to 7 feet thick, were pierced only by small openings, access to 
the interior being gained by means of ladders and a hatchway in 
the roof, this hatchway serving the double purpose of entrance 
and flues, as chimneys were unknown in North America before the 
advent of Europeans. 

The Thlinkits, Haidas and others built substantial rectangular 
abodes with sides and ends formed of planks and the fronts elabo- 
rately carved and painted with symbolic figures. Directly in front 
of the house a totem pole is placed, and near by a memorial pole. 
These houses are sometimes 100 by 40 feet in the Vancouver and 
Salish (Flathead) districts, and are occupied by several families. 

The most primitive abodes were those of the Pai-utes and the 
Cocopas, consisting simply of brush shelters for summer, and for 
winter a framework of poles bent together at the top and covered 
with brush, bark, and earth. The circular wigwam, with sides of 
bark or mats, built over a shallow excavation in the soil, and with 
earth thrown against the base, appears to have been the usual form 
in the Ohio valley and neighbouring Mississippi districts in pre- 
historic and early historic times. Another form in Arkansas before 



American (Amerind) or Red Division 



243 



the discovery was a rectangular structure with two rooms in front 
and one in the rear ; the walls were of upright posts thickly plastered 
with clay on a sort of wattle. Buildings of stone or adobe were 
unknown except among the Puebloans. 

The dwellings of the Siouans, Arapahos, Comanches, Kiowas and 
other prairie tribes were generally portable skin tents or tipis \ but 
those of the 
Omahas, Osages 
and some others 
were very sub- 
stantial, the 
Omaha tipis 
being built by 
setting stout 
poles together 
and binding 
them firmly with 
willows, then 
backing them 
with dried grass, 
and covering the 
whole with 
closely packed 
sods. The roof, 
made in the same 
way, had an extra 
support of an ad- 
ditional circle of 
posts, while a 
circular opening 
in the centre 
served both as 
a flue and to 

give light to the interior. An important type is the Wiahita grass 
hut, circular, dome-shaped, with conical top. The frame was built 
somewhat in panels formed by ribs and crossbars covered with 
grass tied on shingle fashion. They varied in diameter from 40 
to 50 feet. 

Formerly caves and rock-shelters were used in some districts, 
and in the Pueblo region houses were constructed in natural recesses 




Phoio per Dr. R. W. Shufeldi 

FIG. 146. — XAVAJO INDIAN MANUFACTURING 

BUCKSKIN 

A branch of the Southern Athapascans 



.244 



The "World's Peoples 



or shelters in the cliffs, whence the expression cliff-dwellings. 
Similar refuges are still met amongst the Mexican Tarahumaras. 
Gavale houses with several rooms were also hewn in the sides 
of soft volcanic cliffs, and in parts of New Mexico and Arizona 
the cliff face is honeycombed with them for miles. In the 
Southern States mounds were often erected as foundations for 

council houses, for 
the chief's dwelling, or 
for other official struc- 
tures. 

The erection of houses, 
especially those of a per- 
manent character, was an 
important event attended 
with much ceremony. 
Thus the construction 
of the Navajo hogdti was 
done in accordance with 
fixed rules, as was the 
cutting and sewing of 
the tipi among the plains 
tribes. Although the 
better types of houses 
were symmetrical and 
well-proportioned, the 
use of the square, the 
plumb-line, or a unit of 
measure was apparently 
unknown. Even in the 
best specimens of the 
ancient Pueblo masonry the joints of the stonework were not 
" broken " (Cyrus Thomas). 

Architecture 

In Mexico, and especially in Mayaland (Yucatan), architecture 
in the strict sense of the term acquired a remarkable development no- 
where rivalled in the New World except in the Peruvian empire. In 
Mexico proper ruined cities are not numerous, and all the more 
imposing monuments, such as the pyramids of Cholula and Teoti- 
. huacan, are referred by the Aztecs themselves to their mysterious 




Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 

FIG. 147.— SIOUAN INDIAN 



American (Amsrind) or Red Division 245 

Toltec forerunners. In Yucatan, on the contrary, the whole land is 
thickly strewn with monumental remains — nearly seventy have already 
been described — all stamped with a certain individuality beneath a 
generally uniform character, and betraying an exuberance of orna- 
mental work carried to such an excess as sometimes to mask the 
main design and outlines of the structure. 

Cholula, which is regarded as the oldest work of the kind in the 
New World, rises near the city of Puebla to a height of 177 feet 
and covers a square space of about 44 acres, being 1,423 feet 
on all four sides at the base. It is solidly built of adobe, and 
now presents the aspect of a huge terraced mound clothed with 
vegetation and crowned with a twin-towered church of the usual 
Spanish-American type. This church replaces an old teocalli — that 
is, " God's House " — or pagan temple, such as surmounted all the 
truncated pyramids in Central America and were the scenes of the 
frightful butcheries accompanying the Aztec " religious " services. 

Teotihuacan, comprising the two pyramids of the " Sun and 
Moon " about thirty miles north of Mexico City, is said to date from 
the ninth century of the new era. The pyramid of the Sun has a 
base of 682 feet square and a height of 180 feet, that of the Moon 
somewhat less, and both are connected by the " Path of the Dead," 
which was followed by a long procession either of the victims being 
led to the sacrificial altars, or of the dead being borne to their 
graves, in the numerous barrows still thickly strewn over the plain. 
Scattered about are also myriads of tiny clay heads, one to three inches 
long, which, like those at Mitla, present a great diversity of human 
types, and are the puzzle of ethnologists. Negro, Mongol, European, 
and Amerind features are detected by experts, and all in association 
with chert or obsidian implements of the Stone Ages. 

The Maya remains, which are variously described as temples, 
palaces, citadels, " nunneries," and teocalli, are not confined to 
Yucatan proper, but also occur in Honduras, Chiapas, and other 
surrounding districts. Merida, the present capital, stands on the 
site of TihoOy a former capital, the materials of which have been 
used up in the building of the new town. The sculptures and 
carvings of a bygone age are still to be seen embedded in the walls 
of the present houses, and most of the stone buildings in the province 
have in the same way drawn their materials from the nearest ruins 
of ancient Amerind structures. 

Amongst the best preserved of these ruins are those of Uxmal, 



246 The "World*s Peoples 

which hes forty miles south of Merida and covers about a square 
mile, now mostly overgrown with rank vegetation. The so-called 
" Governor's House," grandest of all the edifices, forms a narrow 
parallelogram 322 feet long, built entirely of dressed stone and 
ornamented on all sides with a deep, richly sculptured frieze. In 
front are eleven doorways leading into a double series of chambers, 
the wooden doors of which have long disappeared. The frieze is 
very effective with its abundance of rich details, including figures 
of warriors, kings, or priests seated in thrones over the doorways, 
and decked with a towering head-dress of large plumes. Very 
striking is the great pyramid of Ake, twenty-five miles east of Merida, 
which is approached by a gigantic flight of steps, and was originally 
topped by thirty-six pillars (twenty-nine still standing) each 4 feet 
square and 14 to 16 feet high. Round the central pyramid at 
Chichen-Itza on the east coast are grouped several other piles, such as 
the " Nunnery," the "Tennis Court," and various temples or palaces 
all profusely adorned with rich friezes, statues, pillars, and carvings in 
relief. 

Perhaps the most extensive group of monuments are those near 
Paleiique in Chiapas, the largest of which has been named the 
" Palace," and was apparently a royal residence standing on a raised 
terrace facing the river. At Menche, on the upper course of the 
Usumacinta, has lately been discovered the so-called " Phantom 
City," which is now known as " Lorillard City," so named in honour 
of the American gentleman who generously defrayed the expenses 
of the discoverer, M. Charnay, in 1882. Here the very river-banks 
are carved into flights of steps, which give access to the great temple 
and other structures in their main features resembling those of 
Palenque. In the temple court was found perhaps the most remark- 
able specimen of the sculptor's art yet brought to light in the New 
World — a solemn Buddha-like figure sitting cross-legged, hands 
resting on the knees, and brow encircled by a jewelled diadem decked 
with large waving plumes. 

Apart from the megalithic monuments of Tiahuanaco, there is 
nothing in South America comparable to these Maya structures 
except the oft-described Peruvian palaces, fortresses, and temples of 
the Sun, and the little-known remains of the Chimu or Yunca people. 
These are not the real names of the mysterious race, whose name 
is now forgotten, but whose culture was antecedent to that of the 
Peruvians. In pre-Inca times their empire extended for over six 



American (Axaerind) or Red Division 247 

hundred miles along the west coast, and a vast space was occupied 
by their capital, Chimu, which was captured and destroyed by the 
Inca, Yupanqui. The ruins of this great city extend from the Monte 
Capana southwards to the Rio Moche, covering an area of nearly 
fifteen miles in this direction, and from five to six east and west. It 
thus occupied an area of nearly one hundred square miles, and must 




Pkoio par Dr. R.W. Shufddi 

FIG. I4S. — SIOUAX 

have been about as large as London north of the Thames. '• In every 
direction for an extent of several leagues, long lines of massive walls, 
huacas (burial places), palaces, aqueducts, reservoirs of water, and 
granaries can be made out. Everything proves the power and 
wealth of a people, the very name of whom has remained uncertain "' 
(de Xadaillac). Of these remains the largest, as well as the most 
characteristic, are the truncated pyramids here called huacas, one of 



248 



The World's Peoples 



which stands on a base 580 feet square, and is still 150 feet high. 
Larger still is the " Temple of the Sun," at the present village of 
Moche, a rectangular structure 800 by 470 feet, 200 feet high, 
and covering an area of over 7 acres. Monuments of this type 
occur nowhere else in South America, and from certain details, such 
as the truncated pyramids, some archaeologists have referred them 
to the ubiquitous " Toltecs." 




Photos by permission of Dr. W. T. Grenfell, of the 
Royal Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen 



FIG. 149. — ESKIMO WOMAN AND MAN 



CHAPTER VIII 

AMERIND DIVISION {continued) 

The Eskimo and Aleuts (p. 249) — The Athapascans (p. 251) — The Algonquians 
(p. 252) — The Mound-builders (p. 254) — The Iroquoians (p. 255) — The 
Muskhogeans (p. 257) — The Siouans and Dakotas (p. 259) — The Flatheads 
and Snakes (p. 262) — The Pueblo Indians and Cliff-dwellers (p. 265) — The 
Tarahumaras (p. 270) — The Aztecs, Mayas, and Toltecs (p. 270) — The 
Zapotecs (p. 275) — The Tarascans (p. 277) — The Chiriqui Potters and Veragua 
Goldsmiths (p. 280) — The Muyscas and Eldorado (p. 281) — The Peruvians 
and Aymaras (p. 284) — The Calchaqui Culture (p. 288) — The Were-jaguar 
Beliefs (p. 288) — The Tupi-Guarani ; Caribs ; and Arawaks (p. 289) — The 
Botocudos (p. 290). — The Pampas Amerinds and Gauchos (p. 292) — The 
Patagonians (p. 297) — The Fuegians (p. 301). 

SO far we have dealt with the general characteristics more or 
less common to all the Amerindians. Further details will 
be noted in the subjoined account of the chief ethnical groups, for 
whose general distribution see pp. 24-5. 

The Eskimo and Aleuts 

Including the sub-group of the Aleutian Islanders the Eskimo 
domain follows the line of least resistance for about 5,000 miles 
from the Bering Sea along the Frozen Ocean to Labrador and 
Greenland, and formerly appears to have extended farther south 
to Newfoundland and New England. Here they came in contact 
with the Norse discoverers of the New World, who called them 
Skrdllinger, and described them as undersized, of swarthy colour 
and broad features, using skin canoes {hudh-keipr), and harpoons 
unknown to the other natives, and eating a mess of marrow and 
blood, and what looked like raw meat, whence no doubt the name 
Eskimantsic, corrupted by the French to Esquimaux, meaning 

249 



250 



The WorId*s Peoples 



" Raw-flesh eaters," given to them by the neighbouring Algonquians. 
Their proper national name is hmuit, " Men " in Alaska; Yiiit of 
same meaning on the Asiatic side, where there is a small settlement 
of long standing; and in Greenland Karalit, a word which may 

be the native form 
of Skrdllinger. 

With some 2,000 
of the kindred 
Aleuts, the Eskimo 
number (1907) 
about 28,000 alto- 
gether, and from 
one end of the 
narrow line to the 
other, which no- 
where recedes over 
about 150 miles 
inland from the sea- 
board, they all pre- 
sent a perfect picture 
of nearly absolute 
racial uniformity. 
Everywhere the 
same social institu- 
tions, tribal customs, 
speech, traditions, 
folklore, and phy- 
sical appearance, 
which is described 
as not dwarfish, but 
somewhat under- 
sized, though some- 
tim es tall, very 
strong and enduring, 
small and shapely 




Photo by permission of Dr T. Gtenfell, of the 
Royal Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen 

KIG. 150.— ESKIMO MAN AND WOMAN 



hands and feet, very broad face, narrow high nose, rather slant 
Mongoloid eyes, very high head increasing in length eastwards 
(Figs. 149-15 1). The temperament is also the same — peaceable, 
cheerful, honest and truthful, but with a very low standard of morals, 
as loose in fact as the tribal organisation, which scarcely exists. They 



Amerind Division 



251 



are exclusively fishers and hunters, chasing the caribou, musk ox, 
and birds in summer, seals and other sea mammals in winter. For 
the seasons there are three types of houses : deer- or seal-skin tents 
stretched on poles for travel in summer ; in winter either snow 
houses or shallow hollows covered with turf and earth laid upon a 
framework of wood or whale-ribs. These suggest the Koro-pok-kuru 
.pit-dwellings (p. 168), and there is no reason to suppose that the Yuits 
may not have once ranged down the coast to Yezo. They are 
thorough animists, holding that spirits inhabit inanimate as well 
as living beings. Yet the chief deity is an old woman who dwells 




Pholo by permission of Dr. W . T. Grenfell, of the 
Royal Mission to DeepSea Fishermen. 

FIG. 151. — A GROUP OF ESKIMOS 

in the ocean, and may cause storms and other mischief if any of 
her tabus are infringed. Her power over the marine animals is 
due to the fact that they are sections of her fingers cut off by 
her father at the time when she first took up her abode in the sea — 
one of the quaintest of theistic conceptions. 

The Athapascans 

The Athapascans, so named from the Athapascan waters traversing 
their domain, call themselves generally £)hie, Ttnneh, and by many 
other variants of a word meaning "Men," most primitive peoples claim- 
ing to be "men" in a pre-eminent or exclusive sense. They occupy 



252 The ■WorId*s Peoples 

a divided domain, which is compact in the north, extending from 
the Eskimo fringe nearly to Port Nelson on Hudson Bay, and 
thence westwards to and beyond the Rocky Mountains. Here 
they are all traders, trappers, voyageurs (boatmen) mostly in the 
service of the Hudson Bay Company, but, as above seen, also 
addicted to cannibalism. Then follow at intervals along the west 
coast of Oregon and Washington a few small groups, which seem 
to indicate the track taken in prehistoric times during their southern 
migrations to the United States and Mexican borderlands. Here 
the great southern section of the Tinneh people is represented 
by the renowned Apache and Navajo warriors and marauders, most 
of whom have now been dispersed or gathered into reservations, 
whereby peace has been at last restored to this distracted region 
since about 1900. 

The Algonquians 

It may be stated that Powell's convenient plan of indicating 
the family, as distinguished from any particular member, by the final 
syllable -an, has been extended by Dr. P. Leon to Mexico and 
Central America, and by the present writer to South America. Thus 
we have here Algonquian as the collective name of the widely- 
ramifying group of which the Algonquins are a single though- 
conspicuous branch. Their domain is conterminous northwards 
with the Athapascan, and extends thence southwards between the 
Mississippi and the Atlantic to Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, 
but in such a way as to leave a large part of the Laurentian basin 
to the Iroquoian nation, whom they enveloped on all sides. Since 
the advent of the first French and English settlers the various eastern 
branches — Delawares, Algonquins, Shawnees, Micmacs, Mohicans, 
Abnaki and many others — have been in continual contact with the 
whites, so that these names have become historical, and some of 
them household words in the pages of romance. Although greatly 
reduced, broken up, or gathered into reservations in the United 
States and the Dominion of Canada, the Algonquians still far out- 
number all North- American family groups. In fact over one-fourth 
of all the Amerinds belong to this division, which has a total 
population of at least 95,000 (60,000 in Canada, 35,000 in the States). 
Of the particular Algonquin tribe which gives its name to the family 
less than 5,000 still survive, all interned in the provinces of Ontario 
and Quebec. But of the Ojibwas (Chippeways) there remain 32,00© 



Amcfind Division 



253 



scattered round (Fig. 152) the Great Lakes, while of the Krees, the 
next most numerous, there are reckoned over 17,000, all in Manitoba 
and the region between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay. The 
Kree language seems to approach nearest to the original mother- 
tongue, whence it has been inferred that the cradle of the race lay 
probably about the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Still the central 
tribes — Abnaki, Mohi- 
can, Delaware and Nati- 
coke — whose territory lay 
between the St. Law- 
rence and Chesapeake 
Bay, have always been 
regarded as the " Grand- 
fathers," that is, the pro- 
genitors of the whole 
stock. From this region 
they sent colonies in 
prehistoric times north- 
wards along the coast, 
driving back the Eskimo 
and probably the Beothuk 
of Newfoundland, whom 
some suppose to have 
been Eskimo; then west- 
ward and north-westward 
up the St. Lawrence and 
the lakes, and southward 
to Virginia and Carolina. 
Nor are the renowned 
Delawares (Leni Lenape), 
Sacs and Foxes, and 
Shawnees yet extinct, al- 
though now collected to 
the number of about 4,000 in reservations in Indian Territory, 
New York, and other places. But of the Massachusetts for whom 
Eliot translated the first Amerind Bible, the Narragansets, the 
Long Island Montauks, the Manhattans, the Powhattans, the 
Panticos, and the other Atlantic coast tribes, with whom the 
English settlers had first to do, none have survived the " wreck 
of nations." 




Photo by Zimmermann 

FIG. 152.— CHIPPEWAY 
A branch of the Algonquian family 



254 The 'W"ofId*s Peoples 

In the Far West Chicago stands on the site of Fort Dearborn, 
which was built in 1804 to overawe the turbulent prairie Indians, 
and was in 1833 the scene of a memorable gathering of the 
Pottawatomis, a numerous branch of the formerly widespread 
Algonquian Miamis. At this gathering they ceded to the United 
States Government a vast domain of some 20,000,000 acres com- 
prising the present States of Illinois and Wisconsin now supporting 
millions of thriving white settlers, while the original owners of the 
land are reduced to about 1,500 souls distributed in small groups 
amongst the Indian Territory, Kansas, and other Agencies. Thus 
must the feeble go to the wall, for there is no resisting the 
relentless laws of Evolution, which in the struggle for existence 
always favour the fittest. 

In these Agencies the natives have still their compensations, 
and instead of the scalpings, lingering tortures and other nameless 
horrors of Indian warfare, some have taken to mystic observances 
which they have developed to a surprising extent. In 1898 the 
Pottawatomi chief Simon Pokagon held a " seance '' to show how 
communication may still be kept up with the spiritual world. 
Poles ten to twelve feet high were set in the ground to form a 
circle six to eight feet in diameter. The top of the lodge was left 
open, the sides tightly covered with birch-bark or skins of animals. 
All being ready, a low tinkling sound is heard, like several small 
bells at a distance, when with a rush on comes the " medium-in- 
chief" carrying a magician's little flat rattle-box like a tambourine. 
He sits down by the camp fire, and begins to explain how he can 
call up the spirits of the dead, as well as those yet living in the 
world, and invites any present to ask questions, and then sings a 
song which can scarcely be understood. He then either crawls 
into the lodge or sits outside with the audience. Immediately the 
lodge begins to shake, as if stricken with an ague chill. Then 
a sound is heard from within, like that of a distant high wind 
soughing through leafless trees, and intermingled with strange 
noises. The questions asked by any one present are always answered 
in an unknown tongue, but among the spirits there is always a 
special interpreter to explain what the spirits say. 

The Mound-builders 

To the Algonquian tribes are often attributed those strange 
monuments of an unknown past, the earthworks and sepulchral 



Amerind Division 



255 



mounds, which are strewn over the Mississippi basin, and are 
thickly crowded together especially in the Ohio valley, which 
always formed part of the Algonquian territory. Few now believe 
that the builders were a different race from the present Amerindians, 
since there is nothing in these monuments that the natives could 
not have done. Many have in fact been erected or continued 
in post-Columbian times, that is, by the present aborigines, so that 
there is no reason for 
attributing any of them 
to other races of which 
we have no knowledge. 
They may have possibly 
originated amongst the 
Seminoles and other 
early inhabitants of 
Florida, whose council- 
house and vast shell- 
- mounds present some 
peculiar features. They 
are made with definite 
purpose, and carried up 
symmetrically into large 
mounds comparable in 
size with those of the 
Ohio region. They 
originated with pile-dwel- 
lings in shallow water, 
where the shells and 
other kitchen refuse ac- 
cumulate and rise above 
the surface, when the 

building appears to stand on posts in a low mound, and such 
structures are then taken as the normal for house-building every- 
where (F. H, Gushing). 

The Iroquoians 

It is popularly supposed that the Algonquians, as well as their 
hereditary foes the Iroquoians, were predatory nomads living 
entirely by the chase and the scalping-knife. Some may have 
been driven to the nomad state by pressure from the white settlers 




Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldi 
FIG. 153 



SIOUAN INDIAN 



256 The WofId*s Peoples 

on the Atlantic seaboard. But they were originally for the most 
part sedentary and agricultural, maize being the staple food 
product, and in swampy districts wild rice. Heavy crops of beans, 
pumpkins, and tobacco were raised, and they understood the use 
of fertilisers such as fish, shells, and ashes worked in with wooden 
spades and hoes. To the Algonquians the Europeans are indebted 
for their hominy, succotash, samp, maple-sugar, Johnnycake, and 
some other preparations. These things imply a settled domestic 
life, as do also the mounds, which could not be erected by restless 
nomads, here to-day, away to-morrow. 

Much of this applies also to the Iroquoians, who stand somewhat 
apart, and were noted at all times for their haughty bearing, warlike 
spirit, and highly developed military system, whence they were 
called " the Romans of the New World." Despite their Hmited 
numbers and long-standing inter-tribal feuds, and although every- 
where surrounded by hostile Algonquians, such was their superiority 
over the other Amerinds that a great Iroquois empire might have 
been established between the Atlantic and the Mississippi had the 
advent of the whites been delayed a few generations longer. In 
the Laurentian region, probably their primeval home, they formed 
originally two hostile sections, the Huron-Eries ( Wyandots), and 
the Iroquois proper, that is, the historical league of the " Five 
Nations" — Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagoes, and Senecas — 
who bectime the "Six Nations "when joined in 17 12 by the kindred 
Tuscaroras from North Carolina. After the destruction or dispersion 
of the Eries by the League in 1650, all the Wyandots disappear 
from history, and survive now only in the names of the two great 
lakes Huron and Erie, so called from these aborigines who roamed 
their shores. 

Separated from the body of the nation were the southern 
Cherokis, who, although they have made no name in history, are 
recognised as amongst the most intelligent of all the northern 
Amerinds. It was a Cheroki, Segwoya, better known as George 
Guest, who in 1824 performed the remarkable intellectual feat of 
analysing the sounds of his intricate polysynthetic tongue, and pro- 
viding symbols for a complete syllabic system by various ingenious 
modifications of the capital letters of an English primer. He could 
himself neither read nor write; yet his syllabary, which is still in 
use and serves its purpose well, supplies 85 signs or full syllables 
made up of 15 consonants generally combined with six vowels, as 



Amerind Division 257 

with k : ka, ke, ki, ko, ku, ki. The Cherokis have all been removed 
from their original homes in Virginia and the Carolinas to Indian 
Territory, where they hold, the most important of all the reservations, 
numbering with their Choktaw friends rather over 27,000. All the 
rest of the once powerful Iroquoian nation are now reduced to 
probably less than 20,000, distributed in about equal parts between 
the United States and Dominion Agencies. All are educated 
Christians, generally read and write English and the books printed 
in their several dialects, and join the Church services in both 
languages. 

The Muskhogeans 

At the time of the Discovery the Gulf States east of the 
Mississippi — Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and parts of 
South CaroHna and Tennessee — were occupied by a number of 
nations, such as the Creeks, Choktaws, Chikasaws, and Seminoles, 
who differed greatly in speech and physical appearance, but were 
held together by certain loose confederacies, of which the Musk- 
hogean was the most stable and important. Hence this name, for 
want of a better, has been conventionally applied in a collective 
sense to all the nations who had little in common except a peculiar 
organisation which was not tribal but rather civic, like that of the 
Greek polls. This of course implies a distinct advance beyond the 
primitive tribal state, and consequently lends a special interest to 
the study of the social institutions of these early Amerindians. 
Thus we have to speak of "towns," and not kraals or camping- 
grounds, and notice that each town had its independent government, 
its council, say, its forum, being a miniature of that of the con- 
federacy, in fact a number of local municipalities under a general 
central administration (Fig. 154). 

All the large towns were provided with a public square formed of 
four blocks of equal size facing the cardinal points, and each 
divided into three apartments. The structure on the east side was 
set apart for the chief councillors, who probably represented the 
government ; that on the south side belonged to the warrior chiefs, 
that on the north to the inferior chiefs, while the west side was 
used for miscellaneous purposes, state and religious or social 
observances, the ceremony of the "black drink," war medicine, and 
so. on, the religious and secular life being still interwoven. The 

17 



258 



The World^s Peoples 



general policy of the confederacy was not arbitrary, but controlled 
by a supreme council, say, a parliament in which each borough 
was represented, and which met annually, or as occasion required, 
at a time. or place fixed by the chief, or head mico. The con- 
federacy itself, that of the Creeks for instance, was a political 

organisation 
__ . __-- ., 7^.,.,.._ -j based on blood 

■ relationship, 
real or fic- 
titious, its chief 
object being 
mutual de- 
fence, and the 
power wielded 
by its parlia- 
ment was 
purely ad- 
visory. The 
struggle be- 
tween the 
Crown and the 
Peers had 
clearly not yet 
been fought 
out. The 
towns again 
were disposed 
in two classes 
— the White or 
Peace towns, 
whose function 
was concerned 
whose officers 




PUio per Dr. R. W. Skufeldt, New York 
FU 



154. — MUSKHOGEAN MAN 
South-east United States 



with civil matters, and the Red or War towns, 
assumed the control of military affairs. 

The central square was a real piazza or market-place devoted 
to the transaction of all public business, and to public ceremonials. 
Here was situate the sweat-house, the uses of which were more 
religious than medicinal or sanitary ; and here also was the 
Chunkey-yard, devoted to the game from which it takes its popular 
name, and to the busk, or so-called " Green-corn Dance." Such 



Amerind Division 259 

games, though not strictly of reh'gious significance, were affairs of 
public interest, and were attended by rites and ceremonies of a 
religious character. In these squares strangers were permitted to 
encamp as the guests of the town. Occasional members of the 
confederacies appear to have been the Natchez people of the 
Mississippi, who were destroyed by the French, and whose history 
and traditions were enveloped in a cloud of romance by Chateau- 
briand. In T905 about 57,000 Muskhogeans were still residing on 
the Indian Territory reservations, the most numerous being the 
Choktaws (26,000); the Creeks (16,000); the Chikasaws (11,000); 
and the Seminoles (3,000). At the Discovery they were estimated 
at 50,000. 

The Siouans and Dakotas 

The term Sioux, a French corruption of Nadowe-ssi-wag, 
" Snakes " or " Enemies," has been adopted by Powell as the 
collective name of the great Amerind nation of which the Dakotas 
(" Allies ") are the chief branch. Their domain, the largest next to 
the Athapascan and Algonquian, was not confined to the plains 
west of the Mississippi, which were reached from the Pacific sea- 
board, as was at one time supposed, but extended south to the 
Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic. They certainly ranged 
over wide tracts in Virginia and the CaroHnas, where in fact is now 
sought their primeval home. Here were the Monacan confederates, 
with the Saponi, the Catawbas, Woccons and others, who were 
centred chiefly on the James River above the falls at Richmond, 
and spoke highly archaic forms of the Siouan stock language. 
From Virginia they were driven over the Appalachian range westward 
to the plains of the Mississippi basin, where they may have rejoined 
the kindred Dakotas after a separation which has been estimated at 
about 1,500 years. 

Amongst the Catawbas the early traveller Lederer found the 
" Fire-dance" still flourishing, as in ancient Italy, Fiji, India, and so 
many other parts. " These miserable wretches," he writes, " are 
strangely infatuated with illness of the devil; it caused no small 
horror in me to see one of them wrythe his neck all on one side, 
foam at the mouth, stand barefoot upon burning coal for near an 
hour, and then, recovering his senses, leap out of the fire without 
hurt or sign of any." 



26o The ^01-1(1*8 Peoples 

Although they have disappeared from the Gulf and Atlantic 
coastlands, the Siouans occupied till lately a vast if somewhat 
fluctuating domain in the heart of the continent. These typical 
prairie nomads roamed from the Saskatchewan basin in Canada 
south to Arkansas, and from the Mississippi over the Missouri 
basin west to Montana and Wyoming. A distinction should, 
however, be drawn between the true predatory hordes, banded 
together in the famous "Seven Council Fires " of the Dakotas, and 
the other branches of the Siouan family — Assinaboins, Omahas, 
Ponkas, Kaws, Osages, Quapaws, lowas, Otoes, Missouris, Winne- 
bagoes, Mandans, Minnetaris, Crows (Absarokas) and others. All 
these formed independent national groups, often hostile to the 
Dakotas, and presenting many distinct features in their speech, 
tribal organisation, religious beliefs, social usages, and even in their 
physical appearance. So marked are some of these characters, as 
amongst the Assinaboins, Omahas, Osages, and Mandans, that the 
Siouan family may be regarded as a widespread people who, in 
pre-Columbian times, were already undergoing a process of dis- 
integration tending to the development of several distinct families. 

But of course the chief interest attaches to the "Seven Council 
Fires," constituting the formidable confederacy of the Santees, Sisse- 
tons, Yanktons, Yanktonnais, Tetons and Wahpetons, in whose social 
system the clan, the gens, the phratry are carefully distinguished, 
and traces still detected of the original matrilineal state, which 
generally preceded the present patrilineal. The difference between 
the clan of savagery and the gens of barbarism is important and 
fundamental. The clan is a group of people reckoning kinship in 
the female line, while the gens is a group of people reckoning kin- 
ship in the male line. In barbarism patriarchies are found as 
concomitant with nomadic tribes, but in savagery the patriarchy 
does not exist. Hence the first great revolution in tribal society is 
the transition from the clan to the gens, the consolidation of power 
in the hands of the few, and the organisation of the gentile family. 
At the time of the Discovery most of the Siouan tribes had 
apparently passed into the gentile organisation, so that amongst 
them man is the head of the family, and the squaw sinks to a sub- 
ordinate position in the household. Since the final revolt of 1876, 
when General Custer's party was cut off" on the Little Bighorn, the 
Dakotas have been dispersed amongst the Indian Territory, Dakota 
and other Agencies, where in 1904 they numbered about 29,000. 




Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 



FIG. 155.— SIOUAN 
Typical prairie Amerinds, chiefly in the Missouri basin 



262 The "W"orId*s Peoples 

They are generally allowed to rank higher physically, mentally, and 
perhaps morally, than any of the western nations. In the reserves 
they are educated in their own language, in which papers are 
issued regularly, and many books have been printed by the 
missionaries (Figs. 147, 148, 153, 155). 

The Flatheads and Snakes 

The term " Flathead " has been applied especially to several 
of the western tribes between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific 
owing to their custom of flattening the heads of their children 
artificially. But the practice was by no means confined to this 
region, and not only extended all along the western seaboard 
from British Columbia to Chili, but was also prevalent amongst 
some of the eastern tribes, such as the Catawbas and Choktaws, 
who were sometimes even called Flatheads. It also extended in 
early times to nearly all the members of the Muskhogean con- 
federacies, as well as to the Natchez and Tonikas. This strange 
custom, whatever its origin and motive, has also prevailed from 
remote times in other parts of the world, although it has certainly 
been more widely diffused in America than elsewhere. 

On the north-west coast the Chinooks of the Columbia River, 
many of the Vancouver natives, and most of the Salishans of Puget 
Sound and British Columbia were addicted to the practice, and 
the term has been applied to all collectively, and to some particular 
groups in a more special manner. But it is a singular fact that the 
people now known in official reports as " Flatheads," that is to say, 
the Salish proper, never flatten the head. This is said to be due 
to the fact that amongst them were found slaves with deformed 
heads belonging to other tribes, and so all came to be called 
TStes-Flates by the early French-Canadian voyageurs. 

Deformation is not always intentional, but sometimes due to 
compression resulting from prolonged contact of the occiput with 
a hard support in the cradle-board. Of the artificial treatment there 
are two varieties, one in which the forehead is flattened by means of 
a board or kind of cushion, while the sides of the head undergo 
compensatory expansion. In the second, known as macrocephalous, 
or conical, the pressure of bandages applied about the head, passing 
over the frontal region and under the occiput, produces a somewhat 
conical or truncated shape with low forehead, narrow sides, and 



imei'in 



d D 



1 VIS ion 



263 



protruding occiput. Both of these varieties are found in North 
America, the first generally in the east, the second in the west. 
They probably began with the unintentional form, and then by 
force of habit be- 
came fixed by 
long practice, 
hence came to be 
considered a tribal 
duty and were 
thus eventually re- 
garded as a mark 
of distinction and 
superiority over 
their neighbours. 
The eifects on 
brain function and 
growth, as well as 
on the general 
health, appear to 
be insignificant. 
The tribes ad- 
dicted to the 
practice show no 
superiority or 
inferiority over 
others, or any 
larger percentage 
of imbeciles, in- 
sane, or neuro- 
pathic subjects, 
nor are any he- 
reditary effects 
perceptible, al- 
though the defor- 
mity once ac- 
quired persists 
throughout life. Amongst the Northern Amerinds the custom is 
falling into disuse, and will probably disappear in a few generations. 

The Snakes, properly Shosho/iea?is, formerly ranged over a wide 
domain in the present States of Montana, Idaho, and Oregon, 




Photo per Dr. R. If. Shufeldt, New York 

FIG. 156. — SHAHAPTIAN INDIAN 
The Nez Perces of the Franco-Canadians 



264 The "W"orld*s Peoples 

down into Utah, Texas, and California. At the advent of the 
whites they even extended eastwards to the Missouri basin (Dakota), 
but with the general displacement of the plains tribes, they were 
gradually pressed westwards to and beyond the main range of the 
Rocky Mountains. Although many suppose that to the Shoshonean 
stock belonged those barbaric hordes that under the name of 
Nahuas poured into Mexico and overthrew the " Toltec " civilisation 
on the Anahuac tableland, they have never betrayed a warlike spirit 
in historic times, and are generally despised by their more bellicose 
Apache and Navajo neighbours. Till lately they eked out a gorry 
existence on their arid upland plains, often reduced to great distress, 
and saved from actual starvation by being gathered into the reserva- 
tions. To the Snake family belonged most of those degraded and 
almost black aborigines of the Californian plains who were subject 
to goitre or rickets, and were commonly known as " Diggers," from 
their habit of grubbing in the ground either in search of edible 
roots or to make themselves half underground hovels. Yet like 
most of the Shoshoneans these Diggers are extremely skilful at 
wicker-work, and make baskets which are not only waterproof but 
serve as cooking utensils, holding water which is boiled by means 
of red-hot stones. 

Members of the Snake family are also the Utahs (Yutes, Utes, 
Pah-Utes), who give their name to the present State of Utah. 
These aborigines of the Wahsatch uplands have no claim to the 
grave and dignified demeanour with which they have been credited. 
On the contrary they have for the most part an excessively mobile 
physiognomy, and converse with great animation and volubility. 
Their language, like all the other Shoshonean idioms, shows certain 
phonetic affinities to the Aztec, and is one of the. most harmonious 
of Amerind tongues. It was on these affinities that Buschmann 
based his well-known theory of a great American race stretching 
from Mexico along the Pacific seaboard northwards to Alaska. 

The Utahs are amongst the most talented artists of all the 
Amerind tribes. In almost every lodge are seen clever representa- 
tions of men, animals, tents, and divers objects, which are intended 
to commemorate battles and other important events, and are thus 
analogous to the wampums of the eastern nations. The Pah-Utes 
{Fiuies), who dwell or dwelt farther south on the plateaux and in 
the river gorges tributary to the Colorado, belong to the same con- 
nection as the Utahs. But in the more arid districts they are 



Amerind Division 265 

reduced to the same wretched condition as the Diggers, and hke 
them are everywhere steadily disappearing. 

Another branch of the widely ramifying Snake family are the 
Comanches (properly Nayuni, or " Neighbours "), who were formerly 
conterminous with the Utahs on the east side towards the sources 
of the Colorado, but also ranged southwards along the middle 
course of the Rio Grande del Norte and the Peers Valley. But 
the Comanches are a very mixed people, due to their habit of 
organising warlike and plundering expeditions for the purpose of 
sweeping from the surrounding plains women and children, that is 
to say, wives and future companions in arms. During these raiding 
excursions the Comanches covered a vast area, sometimes ranging 
from five hundred to eight hundred miles over the prairie. Hence it 
is that they were so often heard of at immense distances from their 
proper domain, as far east as Arkansas, and far down in Chihuahua 
and even Durango in Central Mexico. For nearly two hundred years 
they waged fierce war against the Spaniards, but were generally 
friendly to the Anglo-Americans except the Texans, by whom they 
were dispossessed of their best hunting-grounds, which brought about 
relentless hostilities lasting for nearly forty years. Since 1875 ^hey 
have been settled in the Kiowa Agency, where they were reduced 
to about 1,400 in 1904. 

When they were not raiding, the Comanches, being pure nomads, 
occupied themselves with buffalo-hunting, following the track of 
the great herds on their swift mounts. They were long noted as 
the finest horsemen of the plains, and bore a well-earned reputation 
for dash and courage. They were also credited with a high sense 
of honour, and held themselves superior to the other tribes with 
which they were associated. In person they were well built, and 
presented the normal physical characters of the plains Amerinds, 
though somewhat inclined to corpulence. Their language has become 
a sort of lingua franca, more or less understood, if not spoken by 
all the tribes with whom they formerly came in contact. Like 
most Shoshonean tongues, it is sonorous and flowing, its chief 
characteristic being a rolling r (J. Mooney). 

The Pueblo Indians and Cliff-dwellers 

Passing from the Thlinkits and art-loving Haidas of British 
Columbia through the Flatheads and widely diffused Shoshones 



266 The World*s Peoples 

("Snakes") of Washington, Oregon, and California, we reach the 
New Mexico and Arizona tablelands occupied by a considerable 
group of Amerinds, who are collectively known as "Pueblo Indians." 
They are so named from the Spanish word pueblo, village or town- 
ship, because they live in permanent village or rural settlements of 
a pecular type scattered over the mesas ("tables," or flat rocky 
heights) of the plateaux. They do not form a single ethnical or 
linguistic family but rather a number of distinct communities 
speaking several stock languages, and in one instance a Shoshonean 
dialect. A certain uniformity, however, is imparted to the whole 
group by their common usages, traditions, religious rites, habitations, 
and general culture. In this respect the Puebloans stand on a much 
higher level than any of the other Northern Amerinds, and hence 
the suggestion that they represent an intermediate stage in a 
continuously progressive cultural zone beginning with the northern 
mound-builders and culminating with the Aztec, Maya, and Peruvian 
civilisations of Central and South America (Fig. 157). 

With the Puebloans must be grouped the neighbouring Cliff- 
dwellers, who are no longer looked on as a separate race, and whose 
sub-aerial abodes are regarded as only a phase of Pueblo architecture 
adapted to a different environment. All are independent local 
developments, and it is now shown that the characteristic Pueblo 
casas grandes — huge stone buildings or fortresses large enough to 
shelter the whole community — grew out of the local conditions and 
had no prototypes elsewhere. One feature is highly instructive, 
that is the so-called estufas or kivas, circular chambers in groups of 
rectangular spaces which are the council-houses and temples in 
which the government and religious affairs of the people are trans- 
acted. The kivas are in fact survivals of the "medicine-lodges " of 
the prairie Indians, and point to a time when the Puebloans dwelt 
on the plains, whence they were driven to their present upland 
homes by the incursions of the Apaches, Navajos, and other pre- 
datory hordes. The unit of Pueblo construction is always this 
single round estufa even in the large many-storied villages, and thus 
the whole system of Pueblo architecture is shown to be a natural 
product of the country and of the conditions of life known to have 
affected the people when they took refuge on the uplands. 

The clanship system prevails everywhere, and the clan names 
comprise such ridiculous objects as the calabash, various kinds of 
maize, grass, salt, the swallow, ant, and humming-bird. Such totems 




Photo per Dr. A'. Leon 

FIG. 157. — PUEBLO INDIANS, NEW MEXICO 

Live in great communal houses (Casas Grandes), and are the most cultured of all the 

Northern Amerinds 



268 The World's Peoples 

could not have originally been deified beings, but merely distinctive 
badges, which only later acquired genealogical or religious import. 
Can it be supposed that any aborigines can at any time have been at 
once so intelligent as to group themselves in a really intricate system 
of clanship, and so stupid as to think themselves of grass, maize, 
ant, or salt pedigree ? 

These Puebloans are specially noted for a highly elaborate sym- 
bolism, manifested in their recurrent seasonable festivities, snak£- 
dances, imposing processions, and other religious ceremonies, some, 
it must be confessed, of a revolting character. In reference to the 
snake-worship, which extends from the plains of the Mississippi to 
the ancient cities of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, and is illus- 
trated in some of the puzzling carvings, paintings, and inscriptions 
of the Aztec-Maya peoples, it is pointed out that the Puebloans 
worship a plurality of deities to whom various potencies are ascribed. 
These zoic deities, or beast-gods, are honoured by highly elaborate 
rites, and, where possible, the mystic zoic potency is bodily repre- 
sented by a living animal of the same species, or else by an artificial 
symbol. Prominent amongst the animal representatives of the zoic 
pantheon is the serpent, and especially the venomous and hence 
mysteriously potent rattlesnake. Intimately associated are the swift- 
striking viper and the lightning with its attendant rain and thunder, 
also, from another standpoint, the moisture-loving reptile of the 
wilderness and the life-giving storms and freshets ; and so the native 
rattlesnake plays an important part in the ceremonies, and especially 
in the invocations for rain, the want of which is always felt through- 
out the arid upland plateaux. 

This symbolism thus awakened is extended to the industrial arts, 
as in th.e feather symbol of the ancient Hopi designs which forms a 
leading motive in the decorated pottery found in all the old Pueblo 
ruins. 

It is in fact a sort of picture-writing often highly symbolic and 
complicated, revealing certain phases of Hopi thought in the dim 
past. Thus we see that the ornamentation of ancient pottery was 
something more than an effort to embellish this fragile material. 
The ruling motive was always rehgious, and to elaborately decorate 
a vessel without introducing a religious symbol was for the ancient 
potter an inipossibiUty. 

Besides the Hopi or Moki there are three other nations — the 
Tanoan, Keresan, and Zu?u — each speaking a stock language of the 



ftiwij>ii^-*juhAi.ga^.*rfiiaiw&4igi<AA'#^^[ift^^ 




Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldi, New York 

FIG. 158.— YUMAN OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

The Yumans and kindred Guaicuras and Cochimi were converted by the Pddres in the 
eighteenth century 



276 The World^s Peoples 

usual polysynthetic type, and occupying collectively nearly thirty 
pueblos with a total population of about 10,300. None have been 
disturbed in their peaceful abodes ; nor have any of the Puebloans 
been removed to reservations, since their casas grandes, their com- 
munal dwellings, have been their reservations from all known time. 

The Tarahumaras 

South of the Pueblo territory the Republic of Mexico is occupied 
by a number of barbarous and semi-civihsed peoples, who have no 
kind of political cohesion, and are grouped for convenience of 
treatment in a few large linguistic families, such as the Yuma, Pima, 
Opaia, Seri, Tarahumara, and Tarascan. Some interest attaches 
to the Tarahumaras, who occupy both slopes of the Western Sierra 
Madre in the States of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Chihuahua. Here 
they have hitherto displayed an extraordinarily conservative spirit in 
resisting foreign influences, and although many listened to the 
missionaries three hundred years ago, and even called themselves 
" Christian," their Christianity is strangely associated with old pagan 
rites, and mysterious ceremonies are still observed at which the 
padres are not permitted to assist. Originally all were cave- 
dwellers, and many of the caves which abound in their district 
continue to be used as habitations by several of the groups. But 
their fame rests chiefly on their reputation as the greatest sportsmen 
and coursers in the New World. Their very name is said to mean 
"Runners," and at certain times whole tribes take part in coursing 
matches, which last for days together, the winners being awarded 
simple prizes, like those of the Hellenic games. Tilting and other 
sports are also practised, and they are altogether a cheerful, light- 
hearted people given to feasting and dancing "with their gods." In 
all these respects the Tarahumaras stand quite apart from the other 
Amerinds. 

The Aztecs, Mayas, and Toltecs 

But in the Central region interest is mainly centred in the two 
great cultural groups — the Nahuatlan represented chiefly by the 
historical Aztecs, and the Huaxtecan by the May a- Quiches. Their 
historical, social, and even geographical relations are so intimately 
interwoven that these two chief exponents of Amerind culture can 
scarcely be treated apart. Thus although their civilisations are 
concentrated the one on the Anahuac (Mexican) plateau, the other 



Amerind Division 271 

in Yucatan and Guatemala, the two domains overlap completely at 
both ends, so that there are isolated branches of the Huaxtecan 
family in Mexico (the Totonacs and others of Vera Cruz), and 
detached groups of Nahuatlans in Nicaragua (Pipils, Niquirans and 
others). 

A remote connection has been suggested between the Nahuas 
(the form now current for Nahuatlans) and the northern Shoshones 
(see above), and this is probable. In any case the Aztec branch 
came, in their traditions, from the seven Aztlan caves in the Far 
North, and in recent times reached their present seats, where they 
founded the city of Tenochtitlan (Mexico) perhaps about two 
hundred years before the advent of the Spaniards (1520). But 
here they had been preceded by the mysterious " Toltecs," a 
cultured people who built the pyramid of Cholula and other great 
works, but whose civilisation was destroyed by the barbarous Nahuas 
under the name of Chichimecs, " Dogs " from the north. 

The Toltecs, that is, the people of Tollan or Tula, were the 
first to found a civilised state on the Anahuac tableland about the 
sixth or seventh century a.d., and after their disappearance every 
ancient monument and all great works of art were attributed to 
them throughout Central America. On this " Toltec question " the 
most contradictory theories are current, and while some hold that 
after their dispersion southwards they spread their culture throughout 
Mayaland, others regard their " Empire " as fabulous, and the 
Toltecs themselves as a myth, or at all events nothing more than 
a branch of the Nahuas themselves, ancestors of those Aztecs who 
founded Tenochtitlan. But a third view is now gaining ground 
that the Toltecs were not Nahuas but Mayas, that Tula and Cholula 
were Maya settlements from the Gulf or east side, and that their 
culture generally was adopted by the Aztecs, whence the similarity 
between the two in many points. 

When their religious systems are compared, the superiority of 
the Mayas over the Nahuas is incontestable. At the time of the 
Discovery the Aztecs were little better than ruthless barbarians 
newly clothed in the borrowed robes of an advanced culture, to 
which they had not time to properly adapt themselves, and in which 
they could but masquerade after their own savage fashion. Hence 
it is reasonable to suppose that Maya art was independently 
developed, while the links between it and the Aztec show that an 
interchange took place, in which process the Maya was the giver 



272 



The World's Peoples 



and the Aztec the recipient. Besides the great architectural 
monuments, all of which except Mitla are in Maya territory — 
Palenque, Coban, Uxmal, Chichenitza, etc. — the most salient 
features of their common culture are the writings of the pictorial 

codices and mural in- 
scriptions, and the 
Calendric systems. 
Of all the Amerinds 
the Aztecs and Mayas 
alone had developed 
what could be called 
a script in the strict 
sense of the term. It 
was almost purely 
ideographic, that is, 
expressed ideas rather 
than sounds, and pho- 
netic only to a very 
limited and still unde- 
termined extent. But 
the records were not 
only painted and sculp- 
tured on stone and 
moulded in stucco, but 
were regularly in- 
scribed in books or 
codices of native 
parchment and paper, 
while the characters 
were to some extent 
conventional or arbi- 
trary, that is, ideo- 
graphic rather than 
pictographic. The Aztec was more purely pictorial and ideographic, 
the Maya more ideographic and phonetic, and consequently approxi- 
mated nearer to a true phonetic system. Dr. Cyrus Thomas even 
claims that many of the symbols possessed true phonetic value 
and were used to express sounds and syllables perhaps after the 
manner of our rebuses. 

More surprising was the perfection of the Maya calendar, which 




Photo per Dr. N. Leon 

FIG. 159. — TARASCO OF LAKE PATZCUARO 

The Tarascos are a cultured people dominant in 
Michoacan 



Amerind Division 273 

was afterwards borrowed by the Aztecs, and has been described 
as even more accurate than the JuUan itself. Among the plains 
Indians the calendars consisted merely of a record of winters (the 
so-called " winter counts "), and of notable events occurring at 
any time, while the shorter time-divisions were reckoned by " nights " 
(days), "dead moons'" (lunations), and seasons of leafing, flowering, 
or fruiting of plants, rnigrating of animals, etc., and there was no 
definite means of reducing the days to lunations, or the lunations 
to years. But the immense advance of the Maya system is indicated 
by the fact that not only were 365 days reckoned as a year, but 
the bissextile was recognised. At the same time the Maya year 
had nothing in common with any of the Asiatic methods, on which 
A. von Humboldt placed so much reliance. It was a purely local 
development in which the year consisted of 18 months of 20 
days each, with 5 supplemental days making 365 altogether. The 
Aztec month of 20 days is also clearly indicated by the 20 corre- 
sponding signs on the great Calendar Stone which was made by 
King Axayacatl in 1479, and is now fixed in the wall of the cathedral 
tower of Mexico. 

At the dedication of this stone thousands of human victims 
were immolated to the bloodthirsty gods of the Mexican pantheon. 
The ^\ztec religious system was the most sanguinary of which there 
is any record, but the monstrous ritual, saturated with gore, is 
too repulsive for detailed description. It was doubtless an outcome 
of the savage nature of the Nahua people, whose early social 
condition is revealed in their own account of their Chichimec 
forefathers. In the Aztec traditions these are described as utter 
savages who despised all culture, tilled no land, lived entirely on 
the chase, and were omnivorous, eating jaguars, pumas, snakes, 
lizards, locusts, rats, moles, earthworms, and man himself. They 
wore no clothing except the undressed skins of wild beasts : had 
no settled habitations beyond caves and rock-shelters, or perhaps 
frail huts of foliage ; no arms except bows and arrows, slings and 
clubs ; no occupation save the chase and war. They drank the 
blood and ate the raw flesh of the slain on the battlefield ; carried 
off their scalps as trophies of victory, and reserved the captives for 
a lingering death by torture. 

Since the conquest, the Aztecs, as well as the other cultured 
nations of the Anahuac plateau, have yielded to European influences 
to a far greater extent than have the Mayas of Yucatan and the 

18 



2 74 The "World^s Peoples 

kindred Quiches of Guatemala. In the city of Mexico the last 
echoes of the rich Nahua tongue have almost died out, and this 
place, although formerly the chief seat of Aztec culture, has long 
been one of the leading centres of Spanish arts and letters in the 
New World. But Merida, standing on the site of an ancient 
Maya capital, has almost again become a Maya town, and here 
the white settlers themselves have been largely assimilated in 
speech and usages to the natives. The very streets are still in- 
dicated by the carved images of the hawk, flamingo, or other 
tutelar deities, while the houses of the suburbs continue to be 
built in the old Maya style, two or three feet above the street 
level, with a walled porch and stone bench running round the 
enclosure. 

One reason for this remarkable contrast may be that the 
Aztec culture, as above seen, was to a great extent borrowed in 
relatively recent times, whereas the Maya civilisation is now shown 
to date from the epoch of the Tolan and Cholulan pyramid- 
builders. Hence the former yielded to the first shock, while the 
latter persists to such an extent that Yucatan may, from the ethnical 
standpoint, still be called Mayapan, as in the palmy days of the 
Xibalba confederacy, whose splendour is attested by the imposing 
ruins scattered over Central America. 

Despite their more gentle disposition, as expressed in the 
softer and almost feminine lines of their features, the Mayas 
held out more valiantly than the Aztecs against the Conquistadores, 
and a section of the nation occupying a strip of territory between 
Yucatan and British Honduras still maintains its independence. 
The " Barbarians," as the inhabitants of this district are called, 
would appear to be scarcely less civilised than their neighbours, 
although they have forgotten the teachings of the padres, and 
transformed the Catholic churches to wayside inns. Were Yucatan 
by any political convulsion detached from the central government, 
all its inhabitants, together with most of those south of the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, would probably in a few generations revert 
under modified conditions to the old Maya social institutions. 

Even as it is, the descendants of the Spaniards have to a great 
extent forgotten their mother-tongue, and Maya-Quiche dialects 
are almost everywhere current except in the Campeachy district. 
Those also who call themselves Catholics preserve and practise 
many of the old rites. After burial the track from the grave to 



Amerind Division 



275 



the house is Carefully chalked, so ihat the soul of the departed 
may know the way back when the time comes to enter the body 
of some new-born babe. The descendants of the national astrologers, 
who composed the ancient pictorial tonalamatls, still everywhere 
pursue their arts, determining events, forecasting the harvests, 
and cast the horoscopes of their wealthy clients, by the conjunctions 
of the stars, and every village has its " Zadkiel " who reads the 
future in the ubiquitous 
crystal globe. Even certain 
priests continue to cele- 
brate the so-called " Field 
Mass," at which a cock is 
sacrificed to the Mayan 
^sculapius, with invoca- 
tions to the Trinity and 
their associates, the four 
genii of the rain and the 
crops. These tutelar dei- 
ties, however, have taken 
Christian names, and the 
Red, or God of the East, 
has now become St. Do- 
menic ; the White, or God 
of the North, St. Gabriel ; 
the Black, or God of the 
West, St. James, and the 
Yellow Goddess of the 
South, St. Mary Magda- 
lene (E. Reclus). 

The Zapotecs 

Besides the Aztecs and 
their allies the elevated 
Mexican plateaux were oc- 
cupied by several other relatively civilised nations, such as the 
Miztecs and Zapotecs of the province of Oajaca, the Tarascos 
and Matlaltzincas (Fig. 159) of Michoacan, the Zoques, Mixis 
and kindred Popolocos of Puebla and a few others. The high 
degree of civilisation attained by some of these nations is attested 
by the magnificent ruins of Mitla, capital of the Zapotecs, which- 




Photo per Dr. N. Leon 

FIG. 160. — MAZAUUA WOMAN, MEXICO 
A branch of the Othomi nation 



276 



The "WofId*s Peoples 



was captured and destroyed by the Aztecs in 1494. Of the royal 
palace competent observers speak in enthusiastic language, VioUet- 
le-Duc declaring that " the monuments of the golden age of Greece 
and Rome alone equal the beauty of the masonary of this great 
building." Mitla is not overdone with ornamental work like most 

of the Maya structures 
(see above), but stands 
out in unrivalled gran- 
deur, with a severe and 
classic beauty as well 
as perfect proportions 
certainly unapproached 
by any other edifice in 
the New World. It is 
also remarkable for the 
extraor di nary dimen- 
sions of the stones used 
in . its erection, which 
have been compared to 
those of the temple of 
Baalbek in Syria. In 
the "Hall of Monoliths" 
there are six huge 
columns disposed at 
even distances down the 
centre, each a solid 
block eleven feet high, 
and as many in cir- 
cumference. Enormous 
blocks of immense 
weight and bulk were 
also placed as lintels 
over the doorways, and 
one marvels how they 
could be raised to elevations where it would require all the 
knowledge of modern engineering skill to place them. These 
buildings are generally coated with stucco painted a Pompeiian 
brick red, and amid the ruins are found little clay figures like 
those already described at Teotihuacan (p. 245). 

The Zapotecs, who ruled over all the Tehuantepec tribes from 




Photo by Dr. N. Leon 

FIG. 161. — ZAPOTECS, MEXICO 
A cultured people of Oajaca 



Amerind Division 



277 



whom the isthmus takes its name, were subject to a hereditary mon- 
arch who was assisted in the government of his people by a High 
Priest so greatly revered that his feet were never allowed to touch the 
ground. He was carried on the shoulders of his attendants, and 
when he appeared in the processions, all, even the chiefs themselves, 
had to fall prostrate before him, and none dared to raise their eyes 
in his presence. He 
presided over san- 
guinary rites only less 
horrible than those of 
the Aztecs, the numer- 
ousgods of the national 
pantheon having all 
to be appeased by 
human sacrifices. 

The Zapotecs are 
said, like the Lapps, to 
hoard their treasures 
in secret hiding-places 
for use in the next 
world, and this seems 
confirmed by the quan- 
tity of gold, jewellery, 
copper ornaments, and 
such like valuables 
frequently brought to 
light in their territory. 
They are a strong, 
well-built people, brave 
and vigorous, and al- 
though still using their 
mother-tongue at least 
in the home, have al- 
ready begun to take 
their share in public 
affairs. Juarez, who upheld the independence of Mexico against the 
French, and shot Maximilian, was a full-blood Zapotec (Figs. 161, 
162). 

The Tarascans 

Of the non-Aztec cultured peoples, next in power and, influence 




Photo per Dr. N. Lcoii 

FIG. 162. — ZAPOTECS 
Still speak the Zapotec stock language 



278 



The World^s Peoples 



to the Zapotecs were the Tarascans, who were formerly dominant 
in the kingdom of Michoacan, and still form the great majority 
of the inhabitants of that region. Although they had long main- 
tained close social and political relations with the Aztecs, they 
were not members of the Nahua family, as shown by their speech, 
which is a stock language still widely spoken throughout all the 
rural districts in the present State of Michoacan and in parts of the 

contiguous State of 
Guanajuato. No doubt 
they called the Aztecs 
"Fathers-in-law" and 
themselves " Sons-in- 
law " (Tarhascue), but 
this had reference not 
to any direct kinship, 
but to indirect alliances 
resulting from the long- 
established practice of 
seeking their wives out- 
side the tribe, and by 
preference amongst their 
Aztec neighbours. 

Like the Mayas and 
Aztecs, the Tarascos had 
a knowledge of picture- 
writing, and one or two 
of the still extant pic- 
torial codices {tonalamtls) 
may perhaps be of Ta- 
rascan origin. In other 
respects they were equally 
if not more civilised than 
most other cultured peoples of Central America, and certainly sur- 
passed all the surrounding Amerinds in several of the industrial arts, 
though not in architecture. Their social institutions appear to have 
been of a higher order and the national religion is stated to have 
been originally of a milder character, that is, until through Aztec 
influences the rage for human sacrifices spread amongst them 
not long before their overthrow by the Spaniards soon after the 
fall of Mexico (Figs. 159, 163). 




Photo per Dr. N. Leon 

FIG. 163. — TARASCO OF LAKE I'ATZCUARO 
The Tarascos were allies of the Aztecs 



Amerind Division 



279 



The Mexican Amerinds in General 

A distinguishing feature of all these upland Mexican Amerinds 
is their soft velvety skin, so thick as to conceal all prominences 
and play of veins and muscles. The blood is not seen as through 
a transparency on the cheeks, except amongst the young girls, 
whose features are said 
at times to " beam like 
copper lit up by the sun." 
They are also noted for 
their broad and highly 
convex chest and the 
great muscular strength of 
their legs. When resting 
by the wayside or in the 
home they squat down 
on their toes, and show 
no signs of fatigue even 
after hours of such an 
apparently uncomfortable 
posture. On journeys 
they always walk in single 
("Indian") file, with a 
light springy step in uni- 
son, and bent somewhat 
forward as if to present 
their broad backs to the 
burden. The attitude in 
fact is that of pack 
animals, and such was the 
condition in which they 
had been till recently 
kept by their Spanish 
taskmasters. The women when kneeling, with motionless head 
and bust, fixed gaze and upheaved chest, have the aspect of 
ancient Egyptian statues. 

The Mexican aborigines are extremely frugal and regular in 
their almost exclusively vegetable diet, which consists mainly of 
beans, maize, pimento, and bananas. In the family circle they 
are occasionally given to drinking to excess ; but whatever quantity 




Photo per Dr. N. Leon 

FIG. 164. — HUAXTECA WOMAN, MEXICO 
A northern branch of Maya family. 



28o The World*s Peoples 

of pulque or other intoxicating liquors they may take, they are 
never subject to attacks of delirium tremens. The natives suffer 
from few ailments, and those that survive the disorders of infancy 
generally arrive at mature age. According to some perhaps not 
altogether trustworthy returns, centenarians are as numerous as 
in Brazil. Very characteristic is that inexpressible cast of gloom 
and incurable sadness which seems to hang over all races destined 
to perish. They are always serious, silent if not sullen, and 




Photo by permission of the Moravian Mission 

FIG. 165. — A GROUP OF SUMU INDIANS 
Moskito Coast, Central America 

suspicious, not without good reason. They follow with a furtive 
glance the man that has wronged them, and they can dissemble 
while awaiting the day of vengeance. 

The Chiriqui Potters and Veragua Goldsmiths 

On our way from Central to South America we are arrested 
at the Chiriqui district near Panama by a splendid school of 
pottery, the finest in the New World, abundant remains of which 
have lately been brought to light. So highly finished is this artistic 
earthenware that it is comparable with the best glazed ceramics 



Amerind Division 



281 



of the Old World. Associated with it are some fine basalt carvings. 
The neighbouring Veragiias also, of the auriferous district named 
from them and now called Costa Rica, were specially noted for 
their taste and technical skill in the goldsmiths' art. The numerous 
prehistoric graves scattered over the whole district have 3'ielded 
an abundance of gold and other artistic objects that had been 
deposited with the dead. Some of the barrows are of very great 
size — 100 by 75 feet and 15 high— and many of these were filled 




Pholj bj yir. Pride, oj ihe South American Missi?n^xry Society 
FIG. 166. — POTTERY-MAKING 
Native of Gran Chaco, Paraguay 

with broken statues of men, women, animals and other objects 
sculptured from volcanic rock. " We cut the weeds and exposed 
an immense statue which must have been 10 feet high, besides a 
fine life-size specimen of the head of an alligator and one of a 
puma" (Col. Church). 

The Muvscas and Eldorado 

The whole of the Panama cultural area seems like an advanced 
province of the civilised Muyscan (Chibcha) nation, who occupied 



282 The World's Peoples 

the Cundinamarca plateau in the present State of Colombia, and 
were also famous workers in the precious metals. The Muyscas, 
that is, " Men," or "Twenty," from the ten fingers and ten toes used 
in reckoning on the vigesimal system, were called Chibchas by their 
neighbours, in reference to the sound ch, as in church, constantly 
recurring in their language. They had a tradition that they owed 
their superior social and political status to a mythical Bochica, a 
sort of demi-god, half human, half divine, who came from the east 
a long time ago, taught them everything, and then became the 
head of their Olympus, worshipped with solemn rites and even 
human sacrifices. Amongst the arts thus acquired was that of the 
goldsmith, in which they surpassed all other Amerindians. The 
precious metal was even said to be minted in the shape of discs, 
and the European cabinets are enrifched with these and other gold 
objects — brooches, pendants, and especially grotesque little figures 
of men and animals — which have been found in great numbers, 
and still occasionally turn up on the plateau. It was the practice 
to offer such objects at the shrines erected everywhere to the 
personified constellations and forces of nature, which were constantly 
increasing in number according to the whim or fancy of their 
votaries. Any mysterious sound issuing from a forest, a rock, a 
mountain pass or gloomy gorge, was accepted as a manifestation 
of some divine presence ; a shrine was raised to the embodied 
spirit, and so the whole land became literally crowded with local 
deities, all subordinate to Bochica, sovereign lord of the Muysca 
world. This world, however, rested on the shoulders of Chibchicum, 
a national " Atlas," who now and then eased himself by shifting the 
burden, and thus caused earthquakes, an explanation not confined 
to Colombia. 

On the plateau there were two rival potentates, whose dissensions 
gave an easy triumph to the Spanish Conquistadores, when in 1537 
they suddenly arrived from three different quarters, dispossessed the 
local rulers, and after a long quest found also the Eldorado, the " Man 
of Gold." This was one of the two rivals, who was accustomed 
on state occasions to cover himself all over with plates of gold 
and plunge into a neighbouring lake, leaving the precious metal as 
an offering to the presiding deity. At his death the body was 
embalmed and placed in the stem of a palm-tree, which was also 
embellished with plates of gold and the deceased similarly decked 
with gold and emeralds. Thus arose the widespread report of 



284 The "World's Peoples 

the Eldorado, of whom nothing more was seen or heard after the 
Spanish Conquest of Colombia. 

The Peruvians and Aymaras 

In the Andean lands south of Colombia the dominant people 
for untold generations were the Quichuas and kindred Aymaras, 
commonly called Peruvians and all subordinate to the royal tribe 
of the Incas, Their territory extended from the Quito district of the 
present Ecuador under the equator for some 2,500 miles southwards 
to the Rio Maule in Chili, with an average breadth of about 400 miles 
between the Pacific Ocean and the eastern slopes of the Cordilleras. 
It thus comprised a considerable part of the present republic of 
Ecuador, the whole of Peru, and large sections of Bolivia, Chili, 
and Argentina, with an area roughly estimated at 1,000,000 square 
miles, and a population of over 10,000,000 (Figs. 167-69). 

Two distinct civilisations are represented by the Quichuas and 
the Aymaras, and the fundamental relations of these two nations 
are extremely obscure. They have both been for ages in close 
contact in the Lake Titicaca region, and one of the traditions of 
the Quichuas themselves traces their cradle to the southern shores 
and islands of this great lacustrine basin, by far the largest in South 
America. Here is the hallowed district which is intimately associated 
with the earliest reminiscences of both races, and the very island 
which gives its name to the lake is the "Jaguar Rock," former abode 
of a huge jaguar who, like the dragon of the Pamir, wore in his 
head a great jewel which illumined the whole lake. Later, when 
the jaguar had disappeared from the sacred islet, there emerged 
from its cavernous recesses the Sun-born Manco-Capac, first of 
the royal Incas, bearing a golden bough which he had received 
from the divine orb, with the injunction to walk on and on till 
he reached a spot where that emblem of the Incas' future glories 
would take root in the ground. He thus came to the site where 
was founded the renowned city of Cuzco, first seat of the dynasty 
and capital of the Peruvian monarchy — most beautiful of national 
legends. 

But it is not history, and this very assumed cradle of the Quichua 
race is also the centre of the earlier Aymara culture, indicated for 
ever by the stupendous ruins of Tiahuanaco at the south end of the 
lake. To find a parallel for the huge blocks composing this amazing 



Lmerin 



d Di 



ivision 



285 



structure we must go to Egypt and Baalbek, and there are outlying 
buildings and enormous upright stones like those of Stonehenge, 
only larger and more finished, and the whole of this vast aggregate 
stands on scarcely inhabitable 
ground 12,000 feet above sea- 
level I But the original plans 
were never completed, inter- 
rupted probably by the Peruvian 
conquerors, and belonging to the 
general design are numerous 
blocks strewn about and ready 
for the mason, and so perfectly 
dressed that they could not be 
surpassed by European artificers 
with their best steel implements. 
Yet these wonderful Aymaras 
had nothing to work with except 
their rude stone or flint tools. It 
is one of those miraculous human 
achievements which pass all 
understanding. 

In the civil and social system 
of the Peruvians everything was 
planned in the interest of the 
theocratic and all-powerful Incas, 
who were more than obeyed, al- 
most honoured with divine worship 
by their invertebrate and priest- 
ridden subjects. The despotic 
authority of the Incas was the 
basis of government ; that au- 
thority was founded on the re- 
ligious] respect yielded to the 
descendant of the Sun, and sup- 
ported by a skilfully combined 
hierarchy. The population was 

divided into decuries, and amongst the ten individuals who formed 
each decury, the Inca or his representatives chose one who became 
the headman, the chief over the nine others. Five decuries had 
at their head a decurion of superior rank ; fifty decuries a chief who 




Photo by Herr C. Kroehle 
FIG. 16S. — PERUVIAN WOMAN 



2 86 The World's Peoples 

thus commanded five hundred men. Lastly one hundred decuries 
obeyed a supreme chief, who received orders direct from the 
Inca. It was a kind of socialism, half religious, half military, 
in which everything was artificial, nature stamped out, and the 
individual reduced to a cipher, a ticketed member of a particular 
group to which he was tied for life, in which he could neither 
rise nor sink, hope nor fear. The system was outwardly perfect, 
but soulless, without a breath of human freedom, and so collapsed 
at the first clash with a handful of mounted Spanish brigands. 

Reference is sometimes made to a particular " Inca language," 
and specimens are given. But these all belong to the common 
Quichuan tongue, which obtained a wide range under the sway of 
the Tncas, is still spoken by about 2,000,000, as the chief medium 
of intercourse throughout the Ecuador and Peruvian uplands, and 
has also spread to many of the semi-civilised peoples along the 
banks of the Amazonian headwaters. It is a highly polysyntheUc 
form of speech, extremely flexible, rich, and sonorous at least in 
the northern districts, where the gutturals are softened and harsh 
combinations avoided. Although there is no native writing 
system, as in Central America, the Peruvians possessed a 
somewhat copious oral literature, much of which has been per- 
petuated since written form was given to the language by the 
publication of Holguins' Grammar in 1607. Besides the well- 
known drama of Ollantay the collection comprises numerous 
popular songs or ballads, love ditties, elegies, and the like, all 
in a tender melahcholy strain. There was also a curious system 
of so-called quipos, coloured strings of different lengths used chiefly 
for recording historical and local events and perhaps for collecting 
statistical matter for government purposes. 

The bodies of the dead were mummified, and the members of 
the family were sometimes put up together in a single pack which 
took the rough outUnes of a human being much broader than long 
with a fictitious head and covering of some textile fabric. Great 
numbers of these and other mummies have been recovered from 
the Ancon and other burial places, and these have yielded vast 
quantities of artistic, industrial, and other objects which had been 
stowed away with the dead. The pottery and woven goods betray 
considerable excellence, and the systems of ornamentation are 
generally of a highly conventional character, showing much progress 
in the local schools of art. The national genius found even fuller 



288 The World's Peoples 

expression in their architecture, illustrated by temples, palaces, and 
fortresses of more severe and correct taste than those of Mayaland ; 
in their irrigation works with entrenchments carried across the hill- 
slopes ; their suspension bridges spanning the mountain gorges ; 
and their great highways, fine engineering works, with stations 
and shelters at stated intervals for the weary wayfarer, and running 
for hundred of miles from one end of the empire to the other. 
All things considei"ed, the Peruvians must rank with the Mayas as 
the most civilised and intellectual of all the Amerind aborigines. 

The Calchaqui Culture 

In North Argentina recent research has revealed a widely diffused . 
cultural area, which was quite independent of the Peruvian, and 
associated with the now extinct Calchaqui nation. It ranged from" 
Bolivia to Mendoza, and centred chiefly in the present provinces 
of Catamarca, Tucuman, and Salta. After a long struggle the 
Calchaqui were conquered by the Incas about 1450 a.d. and their 
civilisation extinguished or absorbed in that of the Peruvians. It 
is however still attested by the old graves, the mounds, ramparts, 
forts and other remains which are strewn over their vast domain, 
and the contents of which have come as a revelation to archaeo- 
logists. From these remains it appears that the Calchaqui practised 
cranial deformation extensively, were undersized, and had the 
shortest heads of any known race, with mean index 94° and max. 
108°, where of course allowance must be made for deformation. 
Besides human remains, the objects found in the graves were chiefly 
large urns, small clay vessels, painted or with designs in relief, 
heads, masques, wooden spoons, copper implements, all belonging 
to a local school of art quite distinct from the Peruvian. 

The Were-Jaguar Beliefs 

Although the Calchaqui, with most of the other aborigines, have 
long been merged in the general Hispano-American population, 
the old superstitions still flourish, and the belief especially in the 
were-jaguar is as strong as ever. We hear of a man living on the 
Rio Gualeguay who was one night murdered by a gang of brigands, 
and soon after some men, including the murderer, were passing 
that way, when a black jaguar sprang out and struck down the 



Amerind Division 2S9 

culprit. This jaguar was often seen afterwards, but never hurt 
anybody unless he happened to be one of the gang, and when 
all were killed he was seen no more. A story is current about a 
Paraguayan native who changes at night to a jaguar in order to 
feed on human flesh. Withdrawing to a thicket he falls on all 
fours and is thus transformed. Then to become a man again he 
reverses the process, but always differs from a real jaguar by his 
very short tail, a mere stump, and hairless face. At last he is 
wounded by a daring youth who, following up the trail of blood, 
comes to a cave strewn with human bones, renews the fight and 
slays the ghoul. 

In the province of Tucuman two brothers formerly lived in a 
hut where the wood was infested by a man-eating jaguar. All 
attempts to hunt him down had failed, as at every shot his hair 
merely bristled up, causing the bullet to rebound. But one of 
the men, noticing that whenever the jaguar appeared his brother was 
never at home, sat a-watching, and one day followed stealthily 
after him into the wood, till they reached a tree on which hung 
a flask of coarse salt and a jaguar-skin rolled up in a bundle. 
Here the suspected brother, taking three grains of salt and spreading 
the skin on the ground, danced round and round until he became 
a jaguar. Horrified at the sight the watcher went home, and 
returning to the tree kindled a fire into which he threw the charmed 
bundle. On his return to the hut, there was his dying brother, 
who knew what had happened and said he must die unless he 
cotild get a bit of the skin. Through pity his companion procured 
this from the embers, and the moribund throwing it over his 
shoulders was again a jaguar who with a mighty bound sprang 
from the hut and was seen no more. 

The Tupi Guaram, Caribs, and Arawaks 

Of the uncultured peoples who have not yet been absorbed in 
the Spanish and Portuguese politico-social systems, the most 
important are the wide-branching Tupi-Guaniiiian family, the rude 
Arawaks, and the ruder Caribs. Originally the eastern Tupi and 
western Guarani jointly occupied about one-fourth of the southern 
continent. Many were gathered with others in the Paraguay and 
Parana missions, where the padres having adopted the Tupi dialect 
as the general medium of instruction, this became the lingoa geral, 

19 



290 



The World*s Peoples 



a convenient lingua fratica throughout Brazil, Paraguay, and parts 
of Argentina. After the suppression of the missions many of the 
tribes relapsed into barbarism, while most of the rest became 

absorbed in the general popu- 
lation. 

Hitherto the Caribs were sup- 
posed to have had their original 
homes far to the north, in the 
Alleghany uplands or in Florida, 
whence they spread through the 
West Indies southwards to Guiana, 
Venezuela, and Brazil. But this 
movement must now be reversed 
and their cradle sought in the 
heart of South America, where the 
Bakairi and other primitive Carib 
tribes dwell about the sources of 
the Xingu and other southern af- 
fluents of the Amazons. In general 
all the Caribs present much the 
same physical characters, although 
the southerners are rather taller 
(5 ft. 6 in.), with less round heads 
(index 79° or 80°) than the Guiana 
Caribs. Formerly they were dis- 
tinguished by their cannibalism 
(p. 237), ferocious methods of 
warfare, and deadly hostility to the 
Arawaks, whose homes are now 
traced, not to Central Brazil but 
to Guiana and the West Indies. 
They are scarcely to be distin- 
guished physically from the Caribs, 
and the division that is drawn 
between the two families is really based only on their different 
languages (Figs. 171, 172). 

The Botocudos 
With the Botocudos of East Brazil we seem to touch the lowest 
depths of savagery. They take their name from the botoquc or 




P}wU) by H.E. Sir Everard im Thurn, 
K.C.M.G. 



170. — A CARIB BOY, BRITISH 
GUIANA 



Amerind Division 



291 



barrel-plug, which is like the large wooden disc worn by all the 
tribes both in the under lip and in the ear-lobes, which are thus 
distended like great leathern bat's wings down to the shoulders. 
All their implements — spears, bow 
and arrows, mortars, bags, water 
vessels — are of wood or vegetable 
fibre, so that they may be said 
not to have yet reached the Stone 
Age. Unions are temporary, and 
their women are constantly subject 
to the most barbarous treatment, 
being beaten with clubs or hacked 
about with bamboo knives at the 
caprice of their brutal masters. 
Their dwellings are mere branches 
stuck in the ground, bound to- 
gether with bast, and though 
seldom over four feet high ac- 
commodating two or more families. 
The Botocudos are pure nomads, 
roaming naked in the woods in 
quest of the roots, berries, honey, 
frogs, snakes, grubs, man and 
other larger game which form 
their diet, and are eaten raw, or 
else cooked in huge bamboo canes. 
They wear the teeth of those they 
have eaten strung together as neck- 
laces, and eat not only the foe 
slain in battle but members of 
their own tribes, all but the heads, 
which are stuck as trophies on 
stakes and used as butts for the 
practice of archery. 

At the graves of the dead fires are kept up for some time to scare 
away the bad spirits. All good influences are attributed to the " day- 
fire " (sun), all bad things to the "night-fire " (moon), which causes 
the thunderstorm, and is supposed itself at times to fall on the earth, 
crushing the hilltops, flooding the plains, and destroying multitudes 
of people. During storms and eclipses arrows are shot up to 




PJiolo by permission of H.E. 
Sir Everard im Thurn, K.C.M.G. 

FIG. 171. — ARECUNA WOMAN 

OF BRITISH GUIANA 

A branch of the Carib family 



292 



The World's Peoples 



frighten the demons or devouring dragons, as amongst so many 
Indo-Chinese peoples. But there is no idea of a Supreme Beincr 
or creative force, the term Lapan, said to mean "God," standing 
merely for spirit, demon, thunder, or at most the thunder-god. 



The Pampas Amerinds and Gauchos 

Except in Gran Chaco, where the Tobas and a few other 

aborigines still hold their 
ground mostly in the 
wild state, nearly all the 
Argentine Amerinds 
have disappeared, either 
absorbed in the general 
Hispano-American popu- 
lation, or exterminated 
during the early border 
warfare, or by the sys- 
tematic policy of the 
administration in recent 
years. Thus the Que- 
randi, JRatiqueles, and 
others of the Plate dis- 
trict, collectively called 
Pampas Indians, who 
for a time successfully 
resisted the first efforts 
of the Spaniards to gain 
a footing on the south 
side of the Plate estuary, 
and afterwards continued 
their predatory excur- 
sions for over two 
hundred years right up to the walls of Buenos Ayres, were at 
last seriously taken in hand in 1879, and practically cleared out 
by General Roca's well-devised " plan of campaign." In a i^y^ 
years vast tracts previously exposed to their raiding expeditions 
were thrown open to settlers, and a complete change effected in 
the local ethnical relations. 

Little has been heard in Europe of these border troubles ; but 




Phoio by permission of the Professor of Anthropology, 
Natural History Museum, Paris 

FIG. 172. — CARIB MAN, SOUTH AMERICA 



Amerind Division 



293 



the horrors and atrocities that were associated with the sudden 
raids of the Pampeans ahnost pass the hmits of credibiUty. " It 
is now but twelve years," wrote Mr. Knight in 1884, "since the 
Indians made a raid in Canada de Gomez, and carried away 10,000 
head of cattle, and many women, for the aboriginal has the good 
taste to prefer the white to the dusky beauties of his own race. 
A raid of Pampas Indians is no joke. As the peaceful stock- 




Photo by Mr, A. de S. Correa, 

FIG. 173.— GROUP OF BOTOCUDOS, BRAZIL 
The most debased of all the Sputh American Amerinds 

farmer is scanning his herds some fine morning, he perceives a 
dust on the horizon, and. out of the dust soon comes on at a 
tremendous gallop the wild troop of naked men on splendid horses, 
seeming one with their steeds — very centaurs with long black hair 
waving behind their shoulders, and brandishing their long lances, 
while they raise their piercing and fearful war cries. The estancia 
is pillaged in a few moments, the wife and daughters of the 



294 



The World's Peoples 



estanciero carried off, and then, swooping down on the herds, the 
savages drive them away to the distant pastures by far rivers that 
the white man knows not of. When Indians on expeditions of 

this nature come across a solitary 
white man, they kill him if they 
find arms upon him. If he is un- 
armed they treat him more merci- 
fully. They content themselves 
with cutting off the soles of his 
feet, and let him go" {Cruise of 
the Falcon). It may be remem- 
bered that the Persian victims 
of the Turkoman alamans often 
met with exactly the same 
treatment at the hands of the 
people of Khiva before their 
marauding expeditions were 
suppressed by the Russians. 

The Pampeans, whom the 
Araucanians call Ptielche, that 
is, " Easterns," are now best 
represented by the Gmicho half- 
breeds, whites on the father's, 
Amerinds on the mother's side. 
Many, however, are said to be 
almost full blood aborigines, 
while others, the Gauchos pro- 
perly so called, are described 
as direct descendants of the 
Conquistadores, especially the 
Moriscos with a large strain 
of Arab blood, further modified 
by gradual adaptation to their 
new environment. But, how- 
ever this be, the typical Gaucho 
is essentially a child of the 
steppe, round whom a certain halo of romance has been thrown 
by his wild venturesome life, his apparent chivalry, love of finery, 
splendid horsemanship, and that air of courtesy which belongs 
to all of Spanish blood. But those who know them best do not 




Pyioto by My. Prhlc, of the South 
American Missionary Society 

FIG. 174. — AN OLD INDIAN OF GRAN 



CHACO, PARAGUAY 



Amerind Division 



295 



regret the gradual disappearance of these " Pampean centaurs" 
who, after playing perhaps a useful part during a transitional 
period between rude and civilised social conditions, are now re- 
ceding before the steady advance of the " Gringos " or white 
immigrants from almost every country in Europe. 

There are of course Gauchos and Gauchos, and some have 
undoubtedly earned 
an evil repute for 
brigandage, and even 
piracy, where they 
have exchanged the 
horse for the canoe 
about the Lower 
Parana reaches. 
Those met by Mr, 
Knight in the upper 
provinces are de- 
scribed as "a cut- 
throat looking lot of 
ruffians ; ragged 
weatherbeaten out- 
laws, many with bolas 
or lassos, ready to 
bring down any stray 
cattle that might 
come by in their 
lonely wanderings." 
But on the other 
hand instances of 
nobler qualities are 
on record, and many 
have shown great 
courage and loyalty 
in the service of those whites whom they had learned to trust 
and respect. 

But they must soon get crowded out, for they find it difficult 
to exchange their restless habits for the sedentary life of the setders 
and of the townsfolk, all of whom they despise. It is curious to meet 
a Gaucho from the pampas strolling through the busy streets of 
Cordoba or Rosario, where he feels so out of place in his striped 




Pyiolo by Pierre Petit, Paris 

FIG. 175. — GAUCHO MAN 
The Gaucho half-breeds are dying out 



296 



The World's Peoples 



poncho, . bis laced pantaloons, and leather belt ornamented with 
bright coins. He takes no interest in anything, but looks with 
contempt on all the surroundings. Life in the saddle, on the 
pampas or in the bush, is the only life he knows or cares for. 
Horse-stealing or cattle-lifting, in his opinion, are the only 

pursuits worthy of 
a man. 

Some of the 
stories told of the 
amazing powers 
of observation and 
sagacity of these 
freelances may 
not be true, but 
they serve to in- 
dicate the repu- 
tation they have 
earned for such 
qualities. If they 
lose their way by 
night, they pluck 
some grass and 
taste it, go a mile 
or two on and 
taste some more, 
and thus find the 
direction of the 
river, lake, or 
wood they wish 
to reach. By the 
flight of birds, by 
a cloud of dust, 
they can tell the number of the approaching convoy, and Mr, 
Knight knew of one who never forgot the footprint of man or 
horse to which his attention had once been called. On one 
occasion while travelling he stopped suddenly, and, pointing to a 
print, said, " The little gray horse stolen from my master, Don 
Luis, three years ago, passed here an hour ago." So it turned 
out, and the horse was recovered (Figs. 175, 176). 




Photo by M. Pierre PctU, Paris 

FIG. 176.— GAUCIIO GIRL 



Amerind Division 



297 



The Patagoxians 
The whole of the region from the Rio Negro south to Tierra 
del Fuego has from remote times been in the exclusive possession 
of the gigantic race whom Magellan called by mistake " Patagones," 
or " Big-feet," for they have in fact rather small feet (under eleven 
inches) compared to their colossal stature of about six feet four 
inches. The error arose probably from their custom of wearing 
in cold weather loose 
guanaco-skin wraps over 
iheir boots, thus giving 
an ungainly appearance 
to the lower extremities. 
Xo native collective 
name is known, if any 
exists, for all the tribal 
groups. Hence ethno- 
logists have adopted the 
term Tehuelche, which is 
applied by the Arauca- 
nians in a general way 
to the whole race. After 
the first accounts pub- 
lished by Pigafetta, his- 
torian of the Magellanic 
voyage round the globe, 
other observers, im- 
proving on those ac- 
counts, reported the 
existence in the same 
region of a veritable 
race of Anaks ranging in 
height from ten to twelve feet. But such reports are generally 
regarded as fabulous, and there is no reason to suppose that 
the present Patagonians difler appreciably in stature or in other 
physical characters from those first sighted by Magellan. Besides 
their height, exceeded only by that of the Brazilian Bororos and 
possibly the African Turkanas, they are noted for their broad 
shoulders, fine muscular development, and stately bearing. The 
eyes are small, the nose rather short, the face round or oval, the 




Pl\oio hy M. PUrre Petit, Paris 

FIG. 177. — ARAUCANIAN MAN 
Still autonomous in South Chili 



298 



The World*s Peooles 



hair black and lank, like that of all Amerinds, the expression 
mild and even pleading. The women also are very tall, and 
the guanaco-skin which constitutes their ordinary costume, contri- 
butes to give them a still more imposing appearance (Fig. 178). 

During the 
voyage of the 
Beagle the Pata- 
gonians were 
interviewed by 
Charles Darwin, 
and later more 
fully described 
by Lieutenant 
Musters, who 
lived for some 
time among 
them, and even 
accompa n ied 
them on a long 
wandering expe- 
dition from one 
end of their ter- 
ritory to the 
other. The 
march was one 
long hunting ex- 
cursion, varied 
with murderous 
wranglings over 
their cups, and 
encounters, 
generally of a 
friendly nature, 
with other kin- 




Pholo by M. Pierre Petit, Paris 

FIG. 178.— PATAGONIANS 
Next to the Bororos, tallest of Amerinds 



dred groups. For they are not a warlike people, and though very 
quarrelsome amongst themselves, especially in their drinking orgies, 
have always lived on a peaceful footing with their neighbours and 
with the Argentine Government, to which they have been completely 
subjected for several decades past. Their national weapons, spear 
and hide buckler, are now replaced by the /wA? perdida, "lost 



Amerind Division 299 

bola," which is of two kinds. The simplest, used chiefly for 
catching ostriches, consists of two round stones covered with leather 
and united by a stout thong about eight feet long. The other 




FIG. 179. — WOMAN OF ARAUCANIA, SOUTH CHILI 
Eastern side of the Andes 

differs only in having three balls connected by thongs to a common 
centre. The hunter holds the smallest of the three in his hand, 
whirls the other two round and round his head, and then, taking 
aim, sends them like chain-shot revolving through the air. On 



300 The World's Peoples 

striking any object the balls wind round it, cross each other, and 
become firmly attached. The main difficulty in using either lasso 
or bola is to ride so well as to be able at full speed, and while 
suddenly wheeling round, to whirl the balls so steadily round the 
head as to take true aim (Darwin). 

Some still wear little silver bells suspended from the waist ; all 
paint themselves red, white, and deep blue, both for show and also 
as a protection against the wind and the mosquitoes. They call 
themselves Christians, but under new forms the old beliefs still 
persist. Sun and moon retain their beneficent qualities as good 
spirits, while baneful influences are spread by certain animals, such 
as the lizards, which have to be conjured by the sacrifice of living 
beings, especially the horse. The women, like Rachel, hide away 
little figures regarded as amulets or household gods, and the 
medicine-men still continue to exorcise their patients, to summon 
or scare away the demons. 

These sorcerers, who correspond to the northern shamans, also 
claim the power of interpreting all natural phenomena and mysterious 
occurrences of all kinds. An old belief based on these interpretations 
assigns to the demons the bodies of aged women as their ordinary 
abode. Hence everybody has the right to kill any old woman 
crossing his path, and in order to escape such a fate most of the 
crones pretend to serve the community as prophetesses announcing 
good tidings. But those whose forecastings turn out wrong are 
hopelessly lost. In certain cases even some elderly relative, slave or 
mistress, had to be sacrificed. On the death of any young person 
in the tent, the head of the family had to secretly remove the 
appointed victim, always a female, far from the camp, and despatch 
her with a knife. This duty was sternly exacted, especially in the 
case of mothers-in-law, and as such sacrifices formed part of the 
marriage rites, the parents of the bride were careful to live apart 
from the son-in-law, never coming in contact or holding any inter- 
course with him. A similar custom is known to prevail elsewhere, 
as among the Papuans, the Australians, the South African Zulu- 
Kafirs, and many other primitive peoples. In these communities 
mother-in-law and son-in-law take every precaution to avoid each 
other's sight, and the explanation of this otherwise unaccountable 
feeling is probably afforded by the Patagonian custom. Married 
people without children often seriously adopt a little dog, setting 



Amerind Division 301 

apart for his maintenance a number of horses, as would be done 
in the case of a son and heir. Even should the parents die, such 
provision for the future is quite safe, as orphans are well looked 
after ; they are the wards of the whole tribe, and their property is 
honestly administered. 

Marriages are always freely contracted without the intervention 
of the parents on either side. But, like burials, they afford a 
pretext for the slaughter of animals. On such occasions several 
mares are killed, and the blood drunk as it flows from the wounds. 
On the other hand, when a man goes into mourning for the loss of 
a wife, he burns all his effects. The dead are sewn up in a poncho 
(a loose over-garment) and buried either in the recesses of a cave 
or under a heap of stones, like the cairns raised over the graves of 
the ancient Keltic chiefs. The body is always deposited in a sitting 
posture, like that of the Peruvian mummies, and like the remains of 
the pre-historic inhabitants of Patagonia, as revealed by recent 
research. 

So lately as the year i860 the Tehuelches still sewed up the 
bodies of the departed in a fresh leather sack. If the sick person 
happened to be advanced in years, his friends did not wait for his 
death, feaiing lest the rigor mortis might render the operation 
impossible. An old woman charged with the funeral arrangements 
sat upon the chest of the victim, drew the legs by sheer force up to 
the trunk at the risk of breaking them, and then fastened the hands 
to the tibias. The pack, well corded, was then exposed to the sun, 
and when sufficiently dried, stowed away in the sands of the dunes. 
Such, aptly remarks Dr. F. Moreno, was the force of habit or 
tradition gradually transformed to a pious duty, that, in order to 
bury the dead in accordance with the prescribed forms, they were 
actually killed by breaking their bones. It seems to recall the 
Procrustean process of legendary Greek history, which may have 
possibly been a reminiscence of analogous usages in still more 
remote savage times. 

The Fuegians 

Tierra del Fuego was already occupied by early man during the 
Stone Ages, as appears from the very old kitchen-middens of pro- 
digious extent which occur in many places on the coastlands. They 
were formerly even more extensive, having suffered greatly from 
marine erosions during the long ages since they were first formed. 



302 



The World's Peoples 



What remains of the shell-heap on Elizabeth Island is nearly a mile 
long, stands twenty-four feet above the present sea-level, has a 
mean thickness of nearly four feet, and is covered with a layer of 
fine sand from two to three feet thick, above which is a deposit of 
vegetable humus with a luxurious herbaceous growth. It was 
evidently submerged, perhaps more than once, and the shells forming 
a great part of its contents are different from and much larger than 
the corresponding species now inhabiting the surrounding waters. 
Similar phenomena are presented by the great mound at the 




Plioto by Dr. Paul Hyades from the " Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn " 
FIG. l8o.— FUEGIANS 
These are Yahgans, the true aborigines of Tierra del Fuego 

missionary station of Ushwaya in Beagle Channel, and by the other 
ancient middens strewn over the archipelago. 

Throughout the historic period the archipelago has been occu- 
pied by three distinct races : In the eastern parts the Onas, who are 
admittedly a branch of the Patagonians from the mainland ; the 
Yahgans of the central islands, who most probably represent the 
true aborigines ; and the Alakalufs of the western groups, who 
appear to be descended from early Araucanian intruders from Chili. 

Few aborigines have been the subject of more glaringly dis- 
crepant statements than the Yahgans, statements made by intelligent 
and even trained observers whose good faith is beyond suspicion. 
Thus some tell us that the women are treated as slaves. The greater 



AmeHnd Division 



303 



the number of wives or slaves a rnan has the easier he finds a Hving ; 
hence polygamy is deep-rooted and four wives common. Owing to 
the rigid climate and bad treatment, the mortality of children under 
ten years is excessive. The mother's love lasts till the child is 
weaned, and is completely gone when the child is seven or eight 
years old. The Fuegians' only lasting love is the love of self. As 
there are no real family ties, the word "authority" is devoid of 




Photo by Dr. Paul Hyades, from the " Mission Sdentifique du Cap Horn " 
FIG. 181. — FUEGIAN CHILDREN 



meaning, and the head of the temporary family group is simply an 
autocrat who does what he likes with its members — throws them 
overboard, for instance, to lighten the boat in a storm. 

This dark picture is reversed by others who assure us that on the 
whole the Fuegian is an amiable being, kind-hearted and considerate 
towards his women-folk. In fact both girls and married women 
expect to be treated with proper respect and deference. Some men 
may have twa or more wives, but monogamy is the rule. Children 
are tenderly cared for by their parents, who in return are treated by 



304 



The World's Peoples 



them with affection and esteem. The Fuegians are of a generous 
disposition, in fact are altruistic and lilce to share their pleasures and 
feasts with others. The husbands exercise due control, and punish 
severely any act of infidelity. 

These seeming discrepancies may be partly explained by the 

general progress 
due to the bene- 
ficent action of 
the English mis- 
sionaries in re- 
cent years, and 
some improve- 
ment in manners 
has certainly 
been made since 
the expeditions 
of Fitzroy and 
Darwin early in 
the nineteenth 
century. But it 
is to be feared 
that these ad- 
vances are 
mainly confined 
to the vicinity 
of the stations, 
beyond which 
the darker pic- 
ture presented 
by the earlier 
and some of the 
later observers 
still holds good. 

The Yahgans might almost be called pygmies, and their low 
stature, averaging only 4 ft. 6 in., presents a striking contrast to 
that of their gigantic Ona neighbours. They differ also in the 
form of the head, which is disproportionately larger, and in the face, 
which appears to be angular and often of the lozenge type. The 
low narrow forehead surmounts small black eyes often with oblique 
lids ; the short crushed nose, depressed at the root, terminates in 




Photo by M. Pierre Petit, Paris 

FIG. 182.— FUEGIAN WOMAN 
Ona group, akin to the Patagonians 



Amerind Division 



305 



very wide nostrils, and the usually very large and thick pouting 
lips are highly characteristic features. One might almost suspect 
Mongoloid characters crossed by a strain of Negro blood. 

The charge of cannibalism brought against the Yahgans by the 
early observers must be dismissed as groundless. They eat neither 
the aged nor their enemies, as has often been asserted, and their 
chief food consists of shellfish, especially mussels, which seems to 
link them with the pnst, as shown by the above described shell- 
mounds. Now and then a whale is stranded on the coast, and then 




FK;. 183. — FURGIANS 
Yahgan group, many now Christians. 

there is a great gorge, after which the remains of the feast are buried 
in a big hole and the place is then forgotten, which shows an in- 
telligence almost inferior to that of the dog, who never forgets his 
bone. Lovisato also, a careful and even sympathetic observer, 
denies them retentive memory, and compares their mental powers to 
the stationary instincts of animals, since they are not improved by 
experience. On the other hand the missionaries tell us that their 
language, different from all others, has a marvellously rich vocabulary 
comprising no less than 30,000 words, so that here again adjust- 
ments have still to be made. 



3o6 The World's Peoples 

They wear no clothes beyond the skins of animals thrown loosely 
over the shoulders, and shifted according to the direction of the 
wind. Those who have interviewed them have been unable to 
collect any legends, folklore, or traditions regarding their origin or 
migrations ; nor is there anything to show that they worship a 
Supreme Being, or any lesser gods or demons. Nevertheless they 
believe in a future life, a continuation of the present in some far-off 
land beyond the mountains. The natural phenomena, also, or any 
unexpected or unexplained events, cause a sort of " religious awe," 
and they even speak of ghosts or spectres who at times attack and 
devour the living. We have here at least the raw materials out of 
which all primitive religious systems have been evolved, and in this 
respect the Fuegians stand rather lower than the Bushmen, and 
perhaps at about the same level as the extinct Tasmanians. It is 
interesting to note that these three most primitive of all aborigines 
occupy the extremities of the three continents tapering towards the 
antarctic regions. 

The Alakalufs, now reduced to a mere handful, about one hundred 
and fifty persons, says the Rev. Mr. Bridges, were formerly far more 
numerous and ranged over a somewhat extensive territory along the 
western shores of Magellan Strait. They are the Pesherais. oi the 
early observers, being so called from this word which they have 
perpetually on their lips, but the meaning of which is unknown. 
Essentially a fishing folk they build large skiffs, in which they 
venture on the high seas as far as the remotest islands of the 
archipelago in quest of seals and aquatic birds. They live chiefly 
on mussels and fish, although they also pursue the guanacos with 
bow and arrows. The Alakalufs are intellectually and socially far 
superior to the Yahgans, which seems to confirm the theory of their 
descent from the highly intelligent Araucanians of the adjacent 
mainland. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE CAUCASIC OR WHITE DIVISION 

North Africa Original Home of the White Man (p. 307)— The African and 
Eurafrican Dohiien-builders (p. 310)— The Eastern and Western Hamites 
(p. 312)— The Egyptians, Kopts, and Bejas (p. 314)— The Somals, Gallas, 
and Masai (p. 316) — The Berbers : Kabyles, Moors, and Tuaregs (p. 319) — 
Berber and Arab Contrasts (p- 321)— The Tibus and Fezzanese (p. 323) — 
The Semites (p. 324) — The Arabs (p. 326)— The Syrians, Maronites, Druzes, 
and Ansarieh (p. 329) — The Jews (p. 331)— The Gypsies (p. 332). 

North Africa Original Home of the AVhite Man 

IN late Pliocene or early Pleistocene times, when primitive man 
began to spread abroad from his Malaysian cradle, no more 
inviting region was accessible to him than the northern section of 
the African continent between the Mediterranean and the Sudan. 
To the question where was the Caucasic type constituted in all its 
essential features, no final answer can be given ; but it may be 
confidently stated that Africa north of the Sudan corresponds best 
to all the known conditions. At that time the Sahara was not a 
marine bed, as is still commonly supposed, but on the contrary 
presented all the physical elements which zoologists demand for 
great specialisations — ample space, a favourable climate, and abun- 
dance of food, besides continuous land-connections at three if not 
more points across the Mediterranean, by which the great African 
fauna moved freely between the two continents. At that time 
the Sahara must have enjoyed an almost ideal climate, while 
Europe was exposed to more than one glacial invasion, and was 
to a large extent covered at long intervals by a succession of solid 
ice-caps. The now stony and sandy Saharan wastes were traversed in 
all directions by great rivers such as the Massarawa trending south 
to the Niger, and the Igharghar (" Running Water ") flowing north 

307 



3o8 



The WoAd*s Peoples 



to the Mediterranean. Nor was there any lack of animal or 
vegetable life in a region thus abundantly supplied with irrigating 
arteries, while the tropical heats were tempered by great elevation 
(2,000 feet), and at times by the refreshing breezes from sub-Arctic 

Europe. 

By the now sub- 
merged land routes 
across the Strait of 
Gibraltar, from Tunis 
through Malta and 
Sicily to Italy, and 
from Cyrenaica over 
the yEgean Sea to 
Greece, came that suc- 
cession of southern 
animals — hippopota- 
mus, hyaena, rhinoceros, 
mammoth, elephant, 
sabre-tooth lion or tiger 
— which made Europe 
seem like a "zoological 
appendix " of Africa. 
But it might with equal 
reason be called an 
" ethnological appen- 
dix" of the same con- 
tinent, since this great 
fauna was accompanied 
by primitive man him- 
self, and is now found 
associated with his re- 
mains in the caves and 
other sheltered sites of 
Spain, France, Britain, 
and Central Europe. Recent research has revealed the presence 
of early man almost everywhere in North Africa — Mauritania, 
Egypt, Somaliland — whence M. de Morgan's conclusion that the 
existence of civilised man in Egypt may be reckoned by thousands, 
and of the aborigines by myriads of years. Nowhere is the 
immense period of time during which man made use of stone 




Photo by E. Brisiowe, Tangier 

FIG. 184. — A FEZ-TANGIER COURIER 

These men do the journey of more than 180 miles 
on foot in from 2^ to 3J days 







p:^ 


m-^ 






•7 --r 




p^» 




^|W«PP9P||H 


'S^' 


-M 


J 


1^ 


1 -J 

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^^ ^ 


n 


UB.-^S 


.^ 








^ 


% ^1 








w} 


i 


4 ''iW f J 




fl 




I J 


('"' 


, - 1r . ' «■ Jit 


r 






ii^ 




<; :r^' 








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(,t ■ 


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■lo 






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..■M. ^SBBBN^^^!^^ 






"''" ■, ■■ 



FIG. 185.--KABYLE WOMEN AT A WEIX 
The Kabyles are the settled agricultural Berbers of North Mauritania' (Morocco and Algeria) 



310 The World*s Peoples 

implements (Palaeolithic man) more strikingly shown than in Tunisia. 
Here some of the flints were found in abundance under a thick 
bed of pleistocene limestone deposited by the waters of a stream 
that has since disappeared. Hence the origin of man in Mauri- 
tania must be set back to a remote age " which deranges all 
chronology and confounds the very fables of the mythologies " 
(M. A. Dumont). 

The African and Eurafrican Dolmen-builders 

But life and human activities, interrupted in Europe by the 
recurrent ice invasions, were continuous in North Africa, where 
we seem to pass imperceptibly from the Old to the New Stone Age. 
Such a vast period is covered — several hundred thousand years — 
that the human form itself was greatly improved, as shown by the 
debased Palaeolithic Neanderthal skull compared with the Neolithic 
Cro-Magnon type which already represents the European man 
(Linne's Homo Eitropaeiis) in all its main features. That this 
Neolithic race, which now forms the substratum of the West 
European populations, came also from Africa, seems evident from 
the analogous nature of their megalithic monuments. The southern 
shores of the Mediterranean from Morocco to Tripolitana are strewn 
with numerous monolithic structures which closely resemble the 
cromlechs, the dolmens, and menhirs of Iberia, Gaul, and Britain, 
and which it is reasonable to suppose were erected by the same 
prehistoric people. In Africa the remains are far more numerous 
than elsewhere, occurring in great variety and in vast numbers, as 
many as ten thousand, chiefly of the menhir type, having been 
enumerated in the Mejana steppe alone. All kinds of megalithic 
structures are found — cromlechs and circles of stones like Stone- 
henge, cairns, underground cells excavated in the solid rock, 
barrows capped with huge slabs, as in our dolmens, cupped stones, 
mounds in the form of step-pyramids, sacrificial altars, even porticoes 
or gateways such as those of the Jebel Msid in Tripolitana, which 
are formed by two square posts ten feet high standing on a common 
pedestal, and supporting a huge superimposed block. Cyclopean 
Stone quarries are still shown in Algeria. Obviously this primi- 
tive style of architecture is indigenous in North Africa, whence 
it spread with the Eurafrican peoples called Iberians, Silurians, Picts, 
and by other names, through Iberia to Gaul, the British Isles, 




riG. l86. — TUNISIAN WOMEN 
Moslem Arabo-Berber blend, of Arabic Speech 



312 The "World's Peoples 

Denmark, and Sweden. The Iberians are still represented by the 
Basques of the Western Pyrenees, whose non-Aryan language shows 
some marked affinities with the Hamitic still spoken by the 
Mauritanian Berbers. French observers now conclude that the 
African dolmen-builders are of the same race as those of Europe ; 
but whether the extinct Picts of France and Britain, the Silurians of 
Wales, and the other pre-Keltic inhabitants of Great Britain belonged 
to the same connection is still an open question. One thing is certain, 
that the British and Gaulish stone monuments were not built by the 
Aryan Kelts, who came later by the Danube and other routes where 
there is not a trace of such structures. After their arrival in the west 
the Kelts, who intermingled in some places with their predecessors — 
whence, for instance, the historical Keltiberians — may have utilised 
some of the dolmens for religious and other purposes, and possibly 
built others on the same model, but they were not themselves 
dolmen-builders, from which it must be inferred that the pre-Kelts 
came from Africa to Europe, and not from Europe to Africa, as has 
been held by some archaeologists. Hence Prof. Sergi's general 
conclusion that Africa is the cradle whence these primitive 
Caucasians spread northwards to Europe, where they still persist, 
especially in the Mediterranean and its three principal peninsulas — 
Spain, Italy, and Greece. It may be conjectured that at least one- 
half of the present European peoples belong to the Eurafrican branch 
of the Caucasic Division. 

The Eastern and Western Hamites 

In their African home the primitive Caucasians soon split 
into two great sections — an eastern branch which passed into 
Asia and became specialised as Semites, and another which, re- 
maining in situ, came to be collectively known as Hamites. 
Both names are purely conventional and have no ethnical value 
of any kind, being mere reminiscences of a time when Biblicdl 
genealogies were supposed to carry weight. 

Of the Hamites, who, despite numerous interminglings, have 
formed the great bulk of the inhabitants of North Africa through- 
out all recorded times, there are two maia divisions : 

I. The Eastern Hamites, comprising the ancient Egyptians 
and modern Kopts ; the Bejas, between the Nile and the Red 
Sea ; the Afars or Danakils between Abyssinia and the Gulf 




FIG. 187.— ALGERIAN WOMAN 
Mixed Arabo-Berber type— fine Caucasic features 



314 



The World's Peoples 



of Aden ; the Somals, Gallas and Masai, of the Somali, Galla, 
and Masai lands ; and the Wahuma or Wahima, interspersed 
among the Bantu populations of the equatorial lake regions. 

2. The Western Ha?nites, comprising the Kabyles, Shluhs, 
and other Berbers of Mauritania; the Saharan Berbers commonly 




Photo by W. Rau 

FIG. 188.— EGYPTIAN CAMEL DRIVER, PYRAMIDS 

called Tuaregs ; the Tibus east of the Tuaregs, and the Fulahs, 
dispersed among the Sudanese Negroes. 



The Egyptians, Kopts, and Bejas 

Of the Egyptians, whose type is Caucasic with perhaps a 
slight strain of Negro blood, it will suffice here to say that they 



The Caucasic or "White Division 



315 



founded in the Nile Valley the oldest civilisation next to the 
Babylonian of which there is any record. But they did it at 
a heavy cost, and their stupendous monuments —pyramids, temples, 
obelisks, royal tombs, and the like— may be said to have been 
cemented with the 
blood of suffering hu- 
manity. Of their ter- 
rible social condition 
we get an insight from 
the statement that when 
the tax-gatherer went 
round it was stick, stick, 
stick, and if any of the 
hapless peasants paid 
without the stick, they 
were abused by their 
women-folk. 

Their modern de- 
scendants, the Kopts, 
have become Arabised 
in speech, but have 
retained their Christian 
religion, the belief in 
the " one nature " of 
Christ, which they have 
planted in Abyssinia. 
Being all educated, the 
Kopts are mostly clerks, 
scribes, and notaries, 
like many of their an- 
cestors in Pharaonic 
times. 

A great antiquity is 
claimed for the Beja 

people (Hadendowas, Bisharis, Ashrafs, Ababdehs and others), who 
may have been the Macrobii of Herodotus, but in any case have 
roamed the steppe as nomads, caravan escorts, or marauders from 
time out of mind. They are the " Fuzzy-wuzzies " of the British 
soldiers, who learned to respect their valour and fierce onrush during 
the fighting about Suakin in 1884-5. Tbey are a handsome race 




Photo by C. Lekegian & Co. 

FIG. 189. — EGYPTIAN WOMAN 
Wearing the yashmak, or face covering 



3i6 



The World's Peoples 



with regular European features, bronze or light chocolate colour 
and long frizzly hair, the dressing of which occupies most of 
their leisure hours. This elaborate hair-dressing is quite an art, 
employing many professional coiffeurs, who draw out the long 

black ringlets, raising a 
central top-knot and 
plaiting the rest in 
small tresses with their 
ends Unravelled. The 
whole is saturated with 
mutton fat, and then 
sprinkled, as a final 
touch, with various 
mineral powders in every 
colour of the rainbow. 
This is the correct "fuzzy- 
wuzzy " style, which is 
supposed to command 
the admiration of all 
their neighbours. 

The Somals, Gallas, 
AND Masai 

Their nearest neigh- 
bours are the predatory 
Afar tribes, through 
whom they are con- 
nected, southwards with 
the great Somal and 
Galla nations. _ -Epth 
a re of a finp Tanras ir 
ty^, often with classic 
profile, though very vari- 
able owing both to Arah 
and Negro grafts on the original Hamitic stock. The hair is never 
woolly, but, like that of the Bejas, long and ringletty (Fig. 191), 
and sometimes straight; nose also straight and even aquiline; 
forehead finely rounded ; eyes moderately large and rather deep- 
set : altogether true Caucasians despite their generally dark colour. 
The level of the Somal intelligence may be gauged from the 




Pkoto by C. Lekcgian 



FIG. 190. — EGYPTIAN WOMAN 
The same as Fig. i8g, without the yashmak 



The Caucasic or White Division 317 

quaint notions they formed of the triangular operations conducted 
in their district in 1907. At first they could not understand the 
purport of the surveyor's work, and thought the leader of the 
party must be a general's magician. The angles that were called 




Pholo by J . Russell & Sons, Crystal Palace, S.E. 

FIG. 191. — SOMALI WARRIOR 
Eastern Hamite, with characteristic ringletty hair 

out during the night work they regarded as the numbers of the 
Mullah's men that would be killed in the next battle ! 

Most observers regard the Ciallas, most numerous of all 
Hamites, as intellectually and even morally superior to the 
kindred Somals and Afars. They are credited by some with 
an original monotheism "disturbed by* divers superstitions.' 



3'8 



The World*s Peoples 



The superstitions are certain ; but the Supreme Deity with a 
large number of subordinate godlets rests on no sohd proof. 
The characteristic feature of the Galla reUgion, which persists 
even under the outward Moslem and Christian professions, is 
the predominance of animistic over natural mythological concepts. 
A great part is played by bodiless spirits ; even their animal and 
tree worship has its roots in animism, and the whole system may 
be described as a strange medley of pagan, Christian, and Mo- 
hammedan beliefs. 
f - Similar beliefs, but 

even of a more marked 
Biblical character, prevail 
amongst the Masai no- 
mads who were lately 
dominant on the plateau 
between Lake Victoria 
Nyanza and the Great 
Rift Valley. But they 
may have derived their 
strange notions about a 
kind of Jehovah, Cain 
and Abel, Abraham and 
the other patriarchs, 
from early contacts with 
the judaising Falashas 
of Abyssinia. During 
their flourishing period, 
the Masai, who are a 
remarkable blend of 
Hamitic and Negroid characters, were a terror to all the sur- 
rounding Bantu populations. Even so recently as 1891 a whole 
district on the slopes of Mount Kenia was found to be laid 
waste with burnt villages, decomposing bodies, and hapless groups 
of survivors, whose " men, women and children had been 
slaughtered indiscriminately; the children, being collected, were 
shut up in huts, which were afterwards burnt over them ; the 
cattle had been seized, and the people's homes broken up and 
ruined " (Gedge). But an end has at last been put to all 
these chronic miseries by the firm establishment of orderly govern- 
ment throughout the British East African protectorates. 




r-^iC}^' 



Photo hv Ml. ir. /. Hai-duiK Kiii'^, HI the coUecthn 
of the Royal Geographical Society 

-A VEILED TUAREG EATING DATES 

Nomad Berber of the Sahara 



FIG. 192. 



The Caucasic or White Division 319 

The Berbers : Kabyles, Moors, and Tuaregs 

Of the Berbers or Western Hamites there are two main 
sections : the Kabyles and others, chiefly settled agriculturists, 
in Mauritania, and the Saharan Tuaregs, chiefly nomad herdsmen 




Photo by Lefoux 

FIG. 193. — A ULED-NAIL (BERBER TYPE) 
Moslem Berber of Arab speech, South Algeria 

and raiders, grouped in large confederacies such as the Beni- 
Mzab, the Askars (Azjars), the Ahaggars (Hoggars) the Kelowi, 
and the Avvelimmiden. These are everywhere distinguished by 
the litham or veil, which is needed to protect them from the 
wind-blown sands of the desert, but has now acquired religious 



320 



The World's Peoples 



significance. It is never laid aside, and to deprive a Tuareg of 
his lithann would be equivalent to an enforced conversion from 
his present Moslem faith to some form of Christianity or pagan- 
ism (Fig. 192). It has become a kind of totem, which, like 




FIG. 194. — ALGERIAN WOMAN 
Half-caste Arabo-Berber Moor 



other totems, was originally a mere badge or mark of distinction, 
and has now become a quasi-deified sacred emblem. 

In the Sahara the Tuaregs are generally full-blood Karaites; 
but the Mauritanian Berbers have become greatly mixed with 
Arab and other elements, while the Moors or Morcsgnes, as the 



The Caucasic or White Division 



321 



native inhabitants of the towns are called, present such a complete 
blend of Hamites and Semites that no distinctions can any longer 
be drawn be- 
tween the two. 
This mixed type, 
which also oc- 
curs amongst the 
Mzabs, the 
Uled-Nails and 
others of the 
Biskra district 
on the Saharan 
frontier (Fig. 193) 
is m a g n i fi- 
cent, and the 
Tangier, Alge- 
rian, Tunisian 
and other Moors 
often present 
regular Caucasic 
features far finer 
than the average 
European (Figs. 
186, 187, 194). 

Berber and 

Arab 
Contrasts 

Where dis- 
tinctions can be 
made, as in the 
rural and steppe 
districts, the 
Berbers are 
found to be a 




FIG. 195. — ALGERIAN WOMAN IN OUTDOOR DRESS 
Being a Moslem, wears the yashmak 



much superior 
race to the 

Arabs in all social respects. The Arab remains above all a 
nomad stock-breeder, dwelling in tents on shifting camping- 
grounds, without house or hamlet ; a good herdsman, but a bad 

21 



322 



The World's Peoples 



husbandman, and that only on compulsion. " The ploughshare 

arid shame entered hand in hand into the family," says the 

national proverb. The 
Berber on the contrary 
loves the sheltering 
woodlands, tills the 
forest glades, settles in 
permanent homes, and 
often develops flourish- 
ing industries — woven 
fabrics, such as the fez 
and bornous, famous 
leather-work (morocco), 
and pottery preserving 
make and forms of the 
early Neolithic types. 
Arab society is feudal 
and theocratic, ruled by 
a despotic sheikh, while 
the Berber, with his 
Jema'a, or village as- 
sembly, and his kanzin, 
or unwritten code, feels 
himself a freeman. 

The Arab again is 
a fanatic, ever to be 
feared, because he 
blindly obeys the will 
of Allah, proclaimed by 
his prophets, mara- 
bouts, and Mahdis, and 
Seniissiah brother- 
hoods. But the Berber, 
a born sceptic, looks 
askance at theological 
dogmas; an unconscious 
philosopher, he is far 
less of a fatalist than 

the Arab who associates with Allah countless afreets, jinns, and 

other fiends in the government of the world. 




Photo by W. Rau 

FIG. 196.- 



-ARAB BOY OF ALGERIA 



The Caucasic or White Division 323 

Nor is the Hamite himself altogether free from such old-time 
survivals. Amongst the Tuaregs the belief is still universal that 
below the surface the Sahara is everywhere peopled by a kind of 
supernatural beings who delight in playing mischievous pranks 
on wayfarers in the desert. They seize and pull down the camels' 
feet, causing them to sink in the soft sands ; they gnaw off the 
roots of the desert plants, thus killing the scanty vegetation ; 
on the approach of the thirsty traveller they drink up the waters 
of springs and wells ; they even come to the surface and assume 
bodily forms to deceive and torment the living. All unexplained 
natural phenomena, such as the pillars of sand raised by the 
whirlwind, are referred to invisible agencies, and the mysterious 
droning heard on a still night in many parts of the wilderness is 
the voice of the jinns conversing among themselves. 

The Tibus and Fezzanese 

East of the Tuaregs the section of the Sahara traversed by the 
Tibesti highlands is occupied by the Tz'du Hamites, who represent 
the ancient Garamantes, and were nearly all pagans till their con- 
version to Islam in the eighteenth century. Some still practise 
heathen rites openly, and amongst the Baeles of the Ennedi district, 
Yido, the native name of the Supreme Being, has not yet been 
dethroned by Allah. In this district a kind of mana or supernatural 
virtue is ascribed to the kuntok, a species of mottled stone of 
somewhat rare occurrence in Ennedi. During the prayers addressed 
to Yido this stone is sprinkled with flour and the blood of a sheep, 
and it then becomes a powerful talisman which secures for its owner 
the success of all his projects, and confusion to all his enemies. 
All wear amulets of some kind attached to various parts of the 
body, and think that ailments may be cured by drinking the water 
used for washing out Koranic texts written on the inside of a cup. 
Similar texts kept in little leather bags make their spears and other 
weapons more deadly, and also protect horses and camels from 
the evil eye. 

Their half-Arabised Fezzanese cousins put great faith in the 
marabouts, who are more numerous and influential in Fezzan than 
elsewhere. They are much employed as magicians to thwart the 
machinations of the great demon Iblis (Satan) and the innumerable 
other wicked jinns, common enemies of mankind, against whom 



324 The "World's Peoples 

Allah himself appears to be powerless. In the Timbuktu district 
the marabouts are replaced by the Santons, a sort of African Shamans, 
who employ music to work themselves into a state of ecstasy, in 
which they pretend to hold commune with the souls of departed 
Moslem saints. From these the Santons receive instructions as 
to the proper animals to be sacrificed for the recovery of the sick. 
Much depends on the worldly means of the patient, and while a 
hen or two will suffice for a poor man, a rich trader or planter may 
require a goat, a gazelle, or an ostrich, the remains being of course 
shared amongst the friends and Santons. So in Europe the poor 
man's rheumatism is the more costly gout of the wealthy patient. 

The Semites 

When the eastern branch of the primitive Caucasians passed 
across the Red Sea into Arabia (p. 312) they probably found that 
uninviting region uninhabited. At least the peninsula is not known 
to have been occupied by early man, by the men of the Old Stone 
Age. Hence the first arrivals from Africa may be regarded as 
here true aborigines, and Arabia has always been rightly looked 
upon as their primeval home. Here they acquired those marked 
physical and mental characters by which the Semitic race has always 
been distinguished, and from this centre of dispersion they sent 
out colonies all over South-west Asia in prehistoric times and later 
back to Africa — Himyarites or South Arabians to Abyssinia, Arabs 
proper to North Africa and the East Coast. That they were 
originally a pastoral people dwelling in tents, as on the central 
steppe land of Negd, and not husbandmen living in houses and 
towns, appears from the Assyro-Babylonian word ctlu = " city," which 
at first meant a tent. To go home is literally to go to onis tent, while 
the Assyrian ekallu and Hebrew ekal, "palace," is a loan word 
borrowed from the non-Semitic Akkadian t-gal, " great house." 

As primarily constituted in Arabia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, 
and Mesopotamia, the Semitic family comprised the following main 
groups : 

South Arabians : Himyarites, Minaeans, Sabaeans ; Abyssinians 
(Tigre, Amhara, Shoa). Speech the most archaic, and generally 
the best preserved of all the Semitic tongues ; is the language of the 
Rock Inscriptions of South Arabia. 

North Arabians : Arabs proper, the Ishmaelites of the Bible. 



The Caucasic or White Division 



325 



Speech also very old, ranking in this respect next to Himyaritic ; 
is the language of the Koran, being the dialect of the Koreish 
tribe, of which Mohammed was a member, and spread with the 
spread of Islam from Morocco to ^Malaysia. 




Photo by Maior Swaipe 

FIG. 197. — AN ABYSSINIAN SOLDIER 
Carries the modern rifle with the national spear and shield 

Assyrians: Early in Babylonia (about 2500 B.C.); later ranged 
up the Tigris to and beyond Nineveh. Speech the Semitic of the 
Cuneiform writings, mostly on brick tablets ; is younger than 
Himyaritic and Koranic; extinct since about 600 B.C. 



326 The World's Peoples 

Armaeans and Amorites : Mesopotamia, Syria, parts of Palestine, 
Armenia, Asia Minor, and North-west Persia ; intermediate between 
Assyrian and Canaanite, Speech Syro-Chaldean ; long extinct in 
Syria, still current amongst a few so-called " Nestorians " or 
" Nazarenes " in Kurdistan and about Lake Urmia ; was the 
language adopted by the Jews during the exile, in which parts of 
Daniel and some later Biblical works were composed, and was the 
language of Christ. 

Canaanites : The Israelites (Jews or Hebrews) of Palestine, the 
Moabites, Phihstines, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, etc. Speech rela- 
tively recent, but preserved in Holy Writ, some Phoenician monu- 
ments, and in Rabbinical form in Talmudic ■ and other Hebrew 
writings. 

Semitic is perhaps the most persistent of all forms of speech. 
The Assyrian of the Cuneiform documents differs, for instance, 
even less from modern Arabic than does English from Old High 
German or Gothic. The vowels change freely, but the consonants 
scarcely at all. They shift about according as they are " moved " 
by the vowels, but never alter their relative position to each other. 
The great feature of the system is its so-called triliteralism ; that is 
to say, every root consists in theory of three consonants, which 
undergo endless modifications of form without ever disappearing 
or dropping out of their proper place. Thus qatala^ he slew, may 
become qdtil, a slayer, quial, slain, qitl or qutl, slaughter, and so 
on ; but q 1 1 must always follow in this sequence to the end of time. 
The Himyaritic member of the family persists in Abyssinia, where 
the old Geez or liturgical form is represented by the modern and 
somewhat corrupt dialects still current in Tigre, Amhara, and Shoa. 
Elsewhere all the historical tongues above tabulated have been 
superseded by the Arabic of the Koran, which in various slightly 
modified forms is now the vernacular throughout North Africa, Egypt, 
Syria, Palestine, Arabia, and Mesopotamia. 

The Arabs 

The Arabs, who are now the dominant people in the Semitic 
world, have preserved the racial type almost in its full integrity. 
This type is essentially Caucasic in its main characters, being distin- 
guished by perfectly regular and expressive features, fine oval face 
and long head, large and often aquiline nose depressed at the root. 



The Caucasic or White Division 



327 



small pointed chin, forehead straight and not very high, black 
almond-shaped eyes, glossj" jet-black hair, rather full beard, skin 
pale white but easily bronzed by exposure, stature rather below the 
average European (5 ft. 4 or 5 in.). This type, which in the upper 
classes often assumes an almost ideal beauty, stands fully on a level 
with the highest European standard in all respects except the com- 
plexion, which is never florid or rose-tinted, but inclines rather to 
swarthy or darkish shades. Blue eyes and light brown hair are 




Photo by W. Rj-u 

FIG. ISS. — ARAB GIRLS, CAIRO 
The Cairo Arabs are all Moslems of Arabo-Koptic descent 

never seen, although frequentiy met amongst the Hamitic Berbers 
(Figs. 196, 198). 

Compared with the Aryan, the Semitic intellect may be described 
as less varied but more intense, a contrast due perhaps to their 
monotonous and almost changeless environment of yellow sands and 
blue skies, with a flora and a fauna hmited to a few species confined 
mainly to oases and steppes which are encircled by the desert and 
everywhere present the same uniform aspect. Hence to the Semites 
we are indebted for Utde philosophy and science, but for much 
sublime poetry associated with many profound conceptions of a 
moral order, resulting in the three great monotheistic religious — the 



328 



The Wofld's Peoples 



Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan. Expansion and progress are 
the dominant characteristics of the Aryan, concentration and im- 
mutability of the Semitic intellect, a special reservation having 
always to be made in favour of the Jews, most versatile perhaps 
of all peoples. 

It is naturally assumed that the Arabs are the most orthodox of 

the Prophet's dis- 
ciples. They are 
certainly orthodox 
enough in so far as 
they are of the Sunni 
sect, and not Shiahs 
("Separatists," or 
" Schismatics ") like 
their Persian neigh- 
bours. But they 
have not yet shaken 
off the old heathen 
beliefs in jinns and 
other invisible 
agencies infesting 
the rocks, caves, 
land, water, and the 
whole environment. 
Even pagan practices 
connected with tribal 
justice and social 
customs still flourish 
to a far greater ex- 
tent than is com- 
monly supposed. 
The Sinai Peninsula, 
again visited in 
1906 for political 
purposes, was found 
to be sparsely peopled by bedouins or full-blood Arab nomads 
living in a very primitive state. The payment of " blood- 
money " is recognised as compensation for murder, and in its 
absence a "vendetta" is proclaimed by the relatives of the 
murdered man to the fifth generation. A person suspected of 





-^fe- 




-M^ ... 


4 

r 

* 





Photo by Bonfils 

FIG. 199. — SYRIAN GUIDE AND INTERPRETER 
Fine Semitic features 



The Caucasic or White Division 329 

crime is subjected to the severest ordeals b)' fire, water, or 
the dream. The tribal judge who chooses the fire-test places an 
iron pan on the flames until it is red-hot, then wipes it three 
times with his hand, and gives it to the accused to touch three 
times with his tongue. If marks of burning are shown he is pro- 
nounced guilty. The idea is that if he is guilty his tongue dries up 
from fear of being discovered, and so gets blistered, whereas if he 
is guiltless, the natural moisture of the tongue keeps it from injury. 
Under the water-test the judge sits with the accused and the public 
in a circle with a copper jug full of water placed in the centre. The 
jug is then made to appear to move round the circle by some 




Photo &y /. W. McLeUan 

FIG. 200. — SYRIAN PEASANT WOMEN 
Are mostly- Christians of Semitic stock and Arab sj)eech 

jugglery attributed to witchcraft or hypnotism. If the jug returns 
back to the judge the accused is guiltless ; but if it stops opposite 
him he is condemned. The dream-test is like that of Pharaonic 
times; only it is the judge who sleeps and sees in a dream whether the 
accused be guilty or not. That the process should be open to abuse 
does not yet seem to have occurred to these primitive bedouins. 

The Syrians, Druzes, Maronites, and Axsarieh 
In SjTia and Palestine the whole population has become 
Arabised in speech, and to some extent in religion. But the 



33° 



The World's Peoples 



majority in the large towns, and the Marotiites of Mount Lebanon, 
have long been Christians of the Syrian rite. They possess a 
copious religious literature including a valuable version of the 
Scripture, and many prehistoric writings by St. Ephrem, John of 
Damascus, and others. Other small ethnical groups, such as the 

Druzes of Lebanon 
and the Hauran 
district beyond the 
Jordan, the Ansarieh 
of the mountain 
range named from 
them, the Melkites 
and some others, 
still linger on either 
as survivals from the 
old pagan and early 
Christian times, or 
as Moslem sectaries 
with secret rites and 
observances sur- 
rounded with much 
mystery. The oc- 
cult tenets of the 
Ansarieh appear to 
be practised by many 
other small com- 
munities scattered 
over North Syria 
and Asia Minor. 
Their reputed 
founder, Barba 
Nasere, made the 
Godhead of Ali the 
basis of the system, 
and they also admit a Trinity, the Ain-Min-Sin, that is, Ali the 
Father, Mohammed the Son, and Salman-el-Farsi, the Holy Ghost, 
which with the use of wine in their secret feasts seems to show 
that this cult is a graft of the Shiah sect on some early form 
of Christianity. The Ansarieh prayers are described as " very 
beautiful and impressive, and there are many curious points 




Photo by permission of the London Society for 
Promoting Christianity among the Jews 

FIG. 20I. — ALGERIAN JEWESS 



The Caucasic or White Division 



331 



analogous to freemasonry in connection with the initiation of a new 
member" (Theodore Bent). 

The Jews 
Most of the present Jewish inhabitants of Palestine probably 
descend from those of the great dispersion after the fall of 
Jerusalem (70 
A.D.), joined 
later by refugees 
from Spain (fif- 
teenth century), 
and by others 
recently from 
Russia. The 
physical charac- 
ters are far from 
uniform, and a 
distinctly red 
type is spoken 
of which crops 
out almost every- 
where, and has 
been traced back 
to early inter- 
minglings with 
the Amorites 
("Red People"). 
One observer 
even asserts that 
there are all 
kinds of Jews — 
brown, white, 
dark, tall, short 
— so that there 

is no longer any question of a Jewish race, but only of a Jewish 
sect. Nevertheless certain marked features — large hooked nose, 
prominent watery eyes, thick pendulous under lip, rough frizzly 
lustreless hair — are sufficiently general to be regarded as racial traits. 
In some parts of Mauritania and Palestine many are distinctly hand- 
some, without showing the characteristic Jewish features (Fig. 202). 




FIG. 202. — WOMEN OF BETHLEHEM 
Are all Semites of Arab speech 



332 



The World's Peoples 



All allow that the Jews are endowed with the most varied 
qualities, as shown by the whole tenor of their checkered history. 

Originally pure nomads, the 
Israelites became excellent 
husbandmen after the settle- 
ment in Canaan, and since 
then they have given proof 
of the highest capacity for 
poetry, letters, erudition of 
all kinds, philosophy, finance, 
music, and diplomacy. The 
reputation of the mediaeval 
Arabs as restorers of learning 
is largely due to their wise 
tolerance of the enlightened 
Jewish communities in their 
midst. In late years the per- 
secutions, especially in Russia 
and Rumania, have caused a 
fresh exodus, and flourishing 
agricultural settlements have 
been founded in Argentina 
and Palestine. Efforts have 
also been made to direct the 
current of migration to the 
British possessions in East 
Central Africa. The scattered 
Jewish communities were esti- 
mated in 1907 at about 
9,500,000, of whom 8,500,000 
are in Europe, 500,000 in 
Africa, 350,000 in Asia, and 
the rest in America and 
Australasia. 




Photo by Ihc Amciica)i Colony, Bethlehem 
FIG. 203. — A CHRISTIAN SYRIAN WOMAN 
OF BETHLEHEM IN FULL ATTIRE 
Semite stock, Arab speech 



The Gypsies 



Although they are not 
strictly speaking | Semites, but Hindus, the European Gypsies 
have this in common with the Jews, that they have successfully 
passed through a long period of dire persecutions, and are now 



The Caucasic or White Division 



333 



dispersed in small groups over a great part of the Aryan world. 
They are a strictly nomad people of undoubted Indian origin, 
who about looo a.d. began to move perhaps in several waves 
of migration from the Indus valley westwards through Irania, Asia 
Minor, Syria, and Eg)-pt to 
Europe, where they first ap- 
peared about 1320 in Greece. 
The course of their wanderings 
can be followed through all these 
regions to the Levant, where 
they are called Chinghiane, a 
name identified with that of the 
Chinganes of the Lower Indus. 
From it are derived the Italian 
Zingari, the Spanish Zincali, and 
the German Zigeuner, and it is 
unquestionably the same word as 
Seka/ie, which their chief, calling 
himself "Duke of Little Eg\-pt,'" 
declared to be the name of his 
people when he was summoned 
before the authorities of the 
Hanseatic Towns in 141 7. In 
Scandinavia they were supposed 
to be " Tartars," and are so 
called ; in Holland they are 
" Heathens " ; in France " Bo- 
hemians,'" because the first bands 
reached Paris from Bohemia in 
1427 ; in Spain there is the al- 
ternative " Gitanos," which is 
the same word as the English 
"Gypsies," that is, Eg}'ptians, fig. 204.— a ;i.v.;;: .-,:z=t 

because they probably reached 

Spain and Britain via the Mediterranean from Egypt. Their own 
proper name is Jiom, "Man," whence the Romni or Romani 
language, which is a degraded neo-Sanskritic tongue intermediate 
between Panjabi and Sindhi. 

From Greece the Rom soon reached Wallachia in the present 
Rumania, whence took place the gradual dispersion over Europe 




334 The Wofld^s Peoples 

early in the fifteenth century. In recent years they have crossed 
the Atlantic, and Gypsy encampments are now familiar sights in 
some of the Eastern States of the Union ; for wherever they wander 
they cling tenaciously to their old nomad habits, and also everywhere 
show the same tastes and follow the same pursuits of tinkers, 
horsedealers, strolling minstrels, prowlers about farmyards, just like 
their Indian ancestry. There are two physical types — Rom proper 
and Jat or Panjabi — which can best be studied in Rumania, where 
some are distinguished by crisp black hair, thick lips, and a very 
dark complexion, others by a fine profile, regular features, and a 
light olive complexion. In Rumania also some of the Hindu 
castes are still kept up, but elsewhere the classes became mixed, 
and all, so to say, " broke caste." 

Now that the motor-car is driving them from the highways, fresh 
interest has been awakened in England for these restless nomads, 
and a new series of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society has been 
started (1907) for the purpose of rescuing from oblivion all that 
can still be preserved of their folklore, traditions, and social usages. 
In the first issue are contained some particulars of the shameful 
treatment to which they were subjected in mediaeval times by the 
civil authorities. The contemporary records teem with vindictive 
or contemptuous allusions to the "cartings and scourgings," the 
" brandings and hangings," with constant references to the daily 
occurrence of " Gipcyans, Gipsons, and Egyptians " being " taken 
and trust up like a rogue." Long accounts are also given of the 
elections of their "kings and queens," of their varied and often 
gorgeous costumes, and other particulars for which room cannot 
here be spared. But those interested in the subject should com- 
municate with the Secretary of the Gypsy Lore Society, 6, Hope 
Place, Liverpool. 

Note. — Although they have crossed the Atlantic it is a remarkable 
fact that no Gypsy has ever yet crossed the Irish Sea, and the 
" Insula Sanctorum " is as free from these wanderers as it is from 
snakes. 



CHAPTER X 

CAUCASIC DIVISIOX {co7itinued) 

Home and Westward spread of the Ar\-ans (p. 335) — Table of the European 
Members of the Aryan Family (p. 336) — Universal Spread of the Aryan 
peoples (p. 337) — The Three Main Di\-isions of the European Aryans (p. 338) 
— Sur^-ival of Primitire African and Asiatic Beliefs in Europe (p. 339) —The 
Kelts (p. 343) — Characteristics of the Q-Kelts (p. 344)— Characteristics of 
the P-Kelts (p. 347) — The Itali (p. 349) — The Latin Nations : The French 
(P- 35°) — The Spaniards (p. 354) — The Portuguese (p. 35S) — The Italians 
(p. 360) — The Hellenes or Greeks (p. 368) — The Teutons (p. 371)— The 
" Northern Barbarians " (p. 373) — The Anglo-Saxons (p. 374) — The English 
(P- 378)— The Scotch (p. 381)— The Slavs and Lithuanians (p. 384)— The 
Russians (p. 388) — The Asiatic Aryans : Iranic and Indie Branches (p. 392) 
— The Armenians (p. 392) — The Kurds and Nestorians (p. 398)— Iranian 
and Hindu Contrasts (p. 402) — The Povindahs (p. 402) — Ali and the Shiahs 
(p. 403) — The Dravidian Aborigines (p. 405) — The Caucasic Polynesians and 
their Cosmogonies (p. 414) — The Micronesians (p. 426). 

Home and Westward Spread of the Aryans 

IT was seen (p. 310) that the first settlement of Europe was made 
by primitive Caucasians arriving from North Africa in company 
with the great southern fauna during the Stone Ages. But after the 
occupation these early Eurafricans were subjected to repeated in- 
vasions of peoples of Aryan speech from the Eurasian steppe lands, 
by whom they had already been almost completely Aryanised in 
language and general culture probably about the close of the 
Neolithic period. This Aryanising of the Eurafrican aborigines, a 
process by which they were, so to say, transformed to Eurasians, is 
the one great factor which outweighs all others in the ethnological 
history of the European peoples, one might say, of the whole 
human family. But this far-reaching event took place in remote 
prehistoric times and under unknown conditions which cannot now 

335 



336 The World's Peoples 

be recovered. Hence it is not surprising that the process has been 
subject to all kinds of speculations, and, in fact, that the questions 
connected with the origin, primeval home, and early migrations of 
the proto-Aryans still remain topics of angry discussion amongst 
ethnologists. Here it must suffice to conclude with Schrader that 
the immigrants came as conquerors at long intervals in successive 
waves of migration from the Eurasian steppe between the 
Carpathians and the Pamir, that they overran nearly the whole of 
Europe except Iberia (Spain), and imposed their language on the 
Eurafrican aborigines, with whom they became merged and 
eventually submerged, thus forming one of the chief constituent 
elements of the present mixed European populations. These 
populations are grouped in several great divisions which originally 
corresponded with the various Aryan languages spoken by them ; 
but the correspondence has been greatly disturbed by the political 
movements of the historic period, by which whole nations have lost 
their primitive Aryan or non-Aryan speech and been forced to 
adopt that of their conquerors. Thus the Ligurians of Italy, the 
Kelts of Gaul, and the Iberians of Spain (all but the Basques) now 
speak neo-Latin languages imposed upon them by their Roman 
masters. So in Pannonia the Ugro-Finnish Magyar has ousted the 
Keltic or Teutonic, while large tracts in Central and North Europe 
(Elbe basin, Pomerania, Prussia) have been TeuLonised, as have 
also the British Isles. 

Table of the European Members of the Aryan Family 

These great changes have to be borne in mind, in order to 
understand how little importance can now be attached to language 
as a racial test. Still it is useful to form some idea of the different 
branches of the linguistic Aryan family which were originally adopted 
by the Eurafrican natives. Various schemes have been proposed, 
for here everything is uncertain. But the following table will per- 
haps be found to come nearest to the actual facts, and also convey 
some rough idea of the order in which the migratory movements 
took place : — 

Kelts : 

1. Q-Kelts : Irish, Erse, Manx; 

2. P-Kelts : Gauls, Welsh, Cornish Bretons. 

Bohemia, Helvetia, Gaul, British Isles. 



Caucasic Division 337 

Itali : 

Latins, Oscans, Umbrians. 

Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica. 

Hellenes (Greeks) : 

^olians, Dorians, lonians, Epiri. 

Greece, Albania, Illyria, Ionia. 

Teutons : 

1. Goths, Low Germans, Dutch, Frisians, English, Norse ; 

2. High Germans : Alsatians, Swiss, Austrians. 

Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia, England, Lothians. 

Slavs : 

1. Russians, Poles, Bohemians ; 

2. Servians, Croatians, Bulgarians. 

Russia, Poland, Bohemia, Balkan Peninsula. 

Letto-Lithuanians : 

1. Letts ; 

2. Lithuanians. 

Kourland, Livonia, Kovno. 

Universal Spread of the Aryan Peoples 

For long ages, that is, throughout the early historic period, the 
relations so far established remained undisturbed except by i7iternal 
commotions. But about the break up of the Western Empire the 
Mongoloid populations began to move westwards from the Asiatic 
steppe lands. Attila with his fierce Huns was followed by Avars, 
Magyars, Bulgars and many other Ugro-Finnish hordes from the 
Ural and Volga regions. Then after long intervals came the last 
great Finno-Turki invasions under the successors of Jenghis-Khan — 
Kazan, Nogai and other Tatars up the Volga, Osmanli Turks in the 
Balkan Peninsula (p. 176), until at times the whole of East Europe 
threatened to become a permanent section of the Mongol domain. 
But the danger was averted by the rise and gradual expansion of 
the eastern Slavs in Russia, the Caucasus, Western Turkestan, and 
throughout Siberia. 

After the discovery of the New World this eastern spread of 
peoples of Aryan speech was accompanied by a still more extensive 
western expansion which has secured to the western Aryans the 

22 



338 The World's Peoples 

whole of America, large sections of South and North Africa, 
Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, in fact all the extra-tropical 
lands suitable for colonisation and settlement by Europeans. This 
represents fully two-thirds of the habitable world, and is the best 
reply to those who have in late years given expression to gloomy 
forebodings regarding the ultimate fate of the Aryan-speaking 
Caucasic races. The " yellow scare " may be dismissed with the 
reflection that the Caucasian peoples, who have inherited or ac- 
quired such a large share of the earth's surface, besides the absolute 
dominion of the high seas, are not destined to be submerged by 
any conceivable combination of the other divisions, still less by the 
Mongol alone. 

The Three Main Divisions of the European Aryans 
But from this rapid survey it is obvious that the Aryanised 
Europeans are a composite people, who within certain broad 
limits present a considerable range of physical characters. Dr. 
W. Z. Ripley aptly remarks that, "instead of a single European 
type, there is indubitable evidence of at least three distinct races, 
each possessed of a history of its own, and each contributing 
something to the common product as we see it to-day." Others 
speak of more, as many even as six different groups ; but Ripley's 
three ethnical zones seem to cover the whole ground with sufficient 
precision. They are briefly specified at p. 25, and may here be 
more fully described : 

I. The tall, fair, long-headed, blue-eyed northern type commonly 
identified by the Germans with the race represented by the human 
remains from the old graves (" Reihengraber "), that is, the 
Germanic, which is Linne's Homo europaeus, and Ripley's Teutonic, 
because the whole combination of characters "accords exactly 
with the descriptions handed down to us by the ancients. Such 
were the Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, Lombards (Longo- 
bardi), together with the Danes, Norsemen, Saxons. . . . History 
is thus corroborated by natural science." The type still exists 
in Scandinavia, North Germany, and in almost ideal perfection 
amongst the blue-eyed, golden-haired, rosy-cheeked children of the 
middle and upper classes in England. It was the type of those 
beautiful Anglo-Saxon slaves in the Roman market, of whom Pope 
Gregory the Great remarked that, were they Christians, they would 
not be Angles but Angels. 



Caucasic Division 339 

2. The central zone of short medium-sized round-heads, with 
many shades of brown hair, grey-brown or hazel eyes, and average 
stature (5 ft. 6. in.). They are the Kelts or Kelto-Slavs of 
French writers, the Ligurians or Arvernians of Beddoe, and the 
Homo alpinus of Ripley, so called for want of a better name. 
Although well represented by the Swiss and Tyrolese these short- 
headed brunettes are by no means confined to the Alpine uplands, 
but range from Brittany across France and South Germany into 
the low-lying plains of Poland and Russia. Most Slavs are now 
of this type, which de Lapouge and some other observers of the 
pessimist school think is slowly encroaching on the nobler Homo 
europaeiis. 

3. The Mediterranean or southern zone of dark, pale or olive 
long-heads, rather undersized (5 ft. 4 to 5 in.), with shapely figure, 
very bright black eyes, regular and often quite handsome features, 
long black and crisp or even ringletty hair, sparse beard, quick and 
intelligent expression. This is the primitive Eurafrican element 
somewhat modified by intruding Aryans in Spain, Italy, South 
France, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Greece ; called Iberians and 
Silurians, or even Picts by some Enghsh writers, and identified 
by others with the primitive Iberians, Ligurians, and Pelasgians 
of the three southern peninsulas (Spain, Italy, Greece), but by 
Ripley grouped together as Mediterraneans. 

Survival of Primitive African and Asiatic Beliefs 
IN Europe 

Surprise is often expressed not merely at the extent but also 
at the great variety of primitive beliefs and superstitions which 
still everywhere persist beneath the thin veneer of Christianity 
amongst these European populations. But the explanation is 
afforded by the intermingling of African and Asiatic elements due 
to the spread of Aryan influences all over Europe. The original 
African notions were not effaced — they never are — but blended 
together with the fresh imports from Asia, thus producing the 
extraordinary diversity of primitive ideas that still hold their ground 
amongst all European peoples. A striking case in point is the 
devotion paid by the Indian Doms, probably the progenitors of 
our Gypsies, to their patroness of thieves, Sansari Mai, to whom 
they pray in a low voice that a dark night may cloak their designs, 



34^ Tke World^s Peoples 

and the gang escape detection. So the Roman thieves too had 
their goddess, Laverna, to whom Horace tells us they also prayed 
in a whisper, asking her to spread the night over their evil-doings 
and cast a cloud over their crimes {Ep. i. i6). The parallelism 
could not be closer. 

It seems probable that the strange beliefs associated with the 
were-wolf and vampire superstitions came both from Asia and 
Africa. In Senaar, East Sudan, the wizards can change themselves 
at night into hyaenas and hippopotami, which roam about seeking 
to destroy their enemies. They hold cannibal feasts in the woods, 
and during the day resume their human form, but are still dangerous, 
since a glance suffices to wither the limbs, the heart, or the entrails 
of their victims, who thus perish in the most horrible torments. 
So in Mindanao, Philippine Archipelago, the balbal^ a huge night- 
bird, whose screech is heard after sunset, is really a human being 
who takes this shape to devour dead bodies. This is a sort of 
vampire which is imported from the Far East, and must be 
regarded as the prototype of the European vampire, a nocturnal 
• demon or the soul of a dead man, who leaves his buried corpse 
to suck the blood of the living. The only difference is that the 
balbal preys on the dead, the vampire on living creatures. 

Human sacrifices are not known to have been offered by the 
African Hamites, but they were prevalent amongst the Aryanised 
Europeans, hence we may suppose that the practice came in with 
the Aryan immigrants from the east. This is rendered the more 
probable since the Norsemen were addicted to the custom, although 
Scandinavia was uninhabited when first occupied by them; hence 
they must have brought the observance with them from Asia. 
We read how Hakon when fighting against the Vikings (985 a.d.) 
offered his own son to obtain the aid of the goddess Thorgerd ; 
in Denmark ninety-nine men were immolated at the great gathering 
which took place every nine years \ in Sweden one of the early 
kings offered up nine of his sons to Odin to obtain long life for 
himself; and in the island of Gotland they sacrificed their sons 
and daughters to obtain the favour of the local deities. Human 
sacrifices were very common amongst the Gauls and the Slavs, and 
in Rome old people were called depontani because they were thrown 
from the bridge (pons) to appease the angry river-god offended by 
this intrusion on his watery domain. 

In Torres Strait the natives make little wooden or wax effigies 



Caucasic Division 



341 



which are treated in various ways for nefarious magic, being first 
named after the persons to be operated upon. Then if the magician 
pulls an arm or leg off the effigy, the victim feels sore in those 
parts, falls ill and 
dies in great pain ; 
but should the limb 
be replaced he re- 
covers. So in Ross- 
shire they make a 
rudely shaped clay 
image, the so-called 
corp creah, of the 
person whose death 
is desired. It is 
stuck all over with 
pins and thorns and 
placed in a stream, 
and as it gets worn 
away by the action 
of the water, the 
victim also wastes 
away, and the more 
pins that are stuck 
in the more acute is 
his agony. But if it 
is to be a lingering 
death, care is taken 
not to stick the pins 
in the vital region of 
the heart. It is a 
very old practice re- 
ferred to by King 
James I., who says 
in his Demonology 
that "the devil 
teacheth how to 
make pictures of wax 

or clay, that by roasting thereof the persons that they bear the 
name of may be continually melted or dried away by con- 
tinual sickness." The process was exactly the same in Rome as 




FIG. 205. — GERMAN PEASANT, BAVARIA 
Heavy, dull, and superstitious 



342 The World's Peoples 

described by contemporary writers, and is known to have been 
tried by Princess (afterwards Queen) Caroline against the Prince 
Regent. 

This almost universal belief explains why a wizard wishing to 
operate on some particular person, desires to get hold of some 
portion of his body, or something actually connected with him. 
In some parts of England a girl forsaken by her lover is advised 
to get a lock of his hair and boil it ; whilst it is simmering in 
the pot he will have no rest. In certain German districts the 
hair-clippings and the nail-parings, as well as broken bits of teeth, 
are buried beneath the elder-tree growing in the courtyard, or are 
burnt or carefully hidden for fear of the witches. This is the origin 
of the dread of the elder-tree still so prevalent in parts of England, 
and only quite recently this writer had to have one growing in his 
front garden cut down to oblige a neighbour, who objected to its 
presence but could not tell why. Even in far-off Patagonia the 
natives burn the hair brushed from their heads and all the nail- 
parings, believing that they may be bewitched by any one getting 
hold of such things. 

Widespread in Germany, a great stronghold of the old ideas 
(Fig. 205), is the belief that if a sod on which a man has trodden 
be taken up and dried behind the hearth or oven, he will wither 
up with it, or at least his foot will shrivel up. He will be lamed 
or even killed by sticking his footprint with nails — cofifin-nails are 
the best — or broken glass. In Germany and Denmark also no 
portion of a survivor's clothing must on any account be put upon 
a corpse, else the owner will languish away as it moulders in the 
grave. To hang rags from the clothing of a dead man upon a 
vine is sure to make it barren, while on the other hand great virtue 
and saving grace are everywhere attributed to the clothes and other 
relics of Christian, Moslem, and Buddhist saints. Hence the custom 
of throwing pins into wells, of tying rags on bushes and trees, of 
driving nails into trees and stocks, of throwing stones and sticks 
on cairns, and similar practices throughout Europe and Asia, where 
they seem to have originated. In the British Isles the sanctity 
of the well or bush was utilised by the early preachers and recluses, 
who took up their abode in the vicinity. Thus it was that the 
wells or trees were called after certain saints and healing powers 
credited to the trees, while the holiness and efficacy of the wells 
dated in most cases, lif not all, from pre-Christian pagan times 



Gaucasic Division 343 

(A. C. Haddon). But this must suffice on a fascinating subject 
with which it would be easy to fill volumes. 



The Kelts 

At the head of our Aryan table (p. 336) stand the Kelts, for they 
were presumably the first to break away from the parent stem and 
move westwards. Hence it is that they are now found on the 
uttermost confines of the European seaboard, the " fringe of the 
melancholy ocean." From time out of mind they were divided, 
as they still are, into two main sections, which are now distinguished 
as those of the Q- and P-Kelts, from the fact that one branch has 
preserved the original q ox. k which the other has changed to p or b. 
Thus the Q-Kelts still say /^^« = head, crest, as in Kinsale, the 
"Old head," while the P-Kelts sdcy pen or ben, as in the Pennine, 
" White-head " range, Derbyshire, Penrhyn, Ben-Nevis, etc. So 
in the same way the Irish ;««<;= son, as in MacManus, MacDonnell, 
becomes map, ap, p in Welsh, as in Mapes, Ap-Thomas, Price 
(P-rhys). 

Being the elder branch the Q's arrived first, but were soon 
followed by the P's along the same route up the Danube over the 
Alps into Italy, and into Central and West Europe to the British 
Isles. Their presence in Italy {Gallia Cisalpina) is evidenced by 
the P name of the A-pen-nines, which is the same word as the 
Derbyshire Pennines (see above), and could have been given to 
the great Italian range only by a people of P-Keltic speech. The 
P's appear to have never reached Ireland, which is the main western 
home of the Q's. But the Kelts in general everywhere intermingled 
with their dolmen-building Eurafrican precursors, thus constituting 
the present Ibero-Keltic (or Picto-Keltic ?) substratum of the 
British populations. In this connection it should be noted that 
the Scots, first heard of as allies of the Picts against the Romans, 
and later as their rivals for the supremacy in North Britain, were 
a branch of the Q's, who brought this name with them from the 
north of Ireland. At that time Hibernia was often called Scotia, 
and when the Picts were crushed by the Scots, who thus extended 
their name to the whole of North Britain, Ireland was called Scotia 
Major in contradistinction to the Scotia Minor which is now simply 
Scotland. 



344 



The "World's Peoples 



Characteristics of the Q-Kelts 

As the Q-Kelts supplanted their Iberian predecessors in Ireland, 
so they have themselves been supplanted, or at least Anglicised, 
by the English intruders. In 1901 their mother-tongue was still 
spoken only by 640,000, all confined to the western parts between 
Kerry and Donegal. Hence the great bulk of the population must 
now be described rather as Anglo-Irish than Ibero-Kelts or Gaels. 
Nevertheless the national temperament largely persists, and despite 
the great change that has come over the people, since the terrible 




Phoio Oy £.. Welch, Belfast 

FIG. 206. — AN IRISH PEASANT 
At his cabin door. Mourne Mountains, co. Down 

famine of 1845-6, the quick-witted and light-hearted Irishman can 
still be easily distinguished from the more collected and less 
outwardly demonstrative Englishman. This is particularly the case 
in county Cork, in Limerick and the other southern and western 
districts where the strain of British blood is less apparent. It is 
noteworthy that in some of these districts the physical characters 
show to the best advantage. Thus in parts of Connemara the 
natives are almost of gigantic stature with shapely limbs and strong 
muscular development. The " Tipperary boys " also, if not quite 



Caucasic Division 



345 



so tall, are no less robust, and are distinguished by a certain 
unstudied grace and buoyant action. Comparative measurements 
made in the different universities show that the young men of 
Trinity College, Dublin, do not yield in stature or vigour to those 
of Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, or Edinburgh, and it would be 
difficult elsewhere to match the Irish Constabulary, recruited from 
every part of the country, for fine proportions, elastic movements, 
and military bearing. The Irish women of the middle and upper 




Photo by W. S. Campbell 

FIG. 207. — AN IRISH PEASANT-WOMAN 



classes are also unsurpassed for physical beauty, complexion, and 
animation, while the peasant women in their graceful hooded cloaks 
present a dignified appearance greatly superior to that of their 
commonplace Anglo-Saxon sisters. 

It is scarcely fair to taunt the Irish with a certain obsequious 
demeanour and outwardly servile air, for that is the result of long 
oppression and has now almost disappeared, while the peasantry, 
despite their poor condition, still retain a manly spirit beneath it all. 
Their natural courage, in which they yield to none, is unquestioned, 
and they also possess other excellent qualities, such as unaffected 



34^ The "World*s Peoples 

hospitality, and a genuine affection for all the members of a very 
wide family circle, as shown by the generous remittances from their 
exiled relatives in the United States and Canada. 

Other commendable traits are the ready response they give to 
kind words and fair treatment, while deeply resenting wrongs, and 
a love of letters inherited from the old times when the schools of 
Erin were frequented by scholars from all parts of Europe. Hence 
even during the days of religious persecution they still eagerly 
attended the open-air "hedge-schools" so long as primary educa- 
tion was interdicted. "The Irish," writes an observant French- 
man, " are vehement in their language, ardent in attack, and smart 
in repartee. They excel in flights of fancy, and readily find a word 
to sum up a situation. They are, in fact, born orators, and a 
greater number of truly eloquent speakers have arisen amongst them 
than in England. Their writers possess no less fluency than their 
talkers, and the Irish newspapers are written with a persuasiveness 
which we look for in vain elsewhere." 

In the Highlands the Q-Kelts (Scots) absorbed the Picts (p. 343), 
and to the fusion, combined with clannish institutions maintained for 
long generations, may be due the marked differences in the mental 
disposition of the Irish and Scotch Gaels. There are also other 
elements, such as the Scandinavians and the Caledonians whom 
Tacitus supposed to be Teutons, which may account for much. In 
any case the Highlanders are now nearly all Anglicised in speech, 
and in 1901 not more than 230,000 still spoke the old mother- 
tongue. Thanks to the poets and novelists, a halo of romance 
surrounds the "children of the mist," who are often regarded from 
a distance as endowed with all the virtues of humanity. That they 
possess some noble qualities — courage, loyalty to their chiefs, and 
unselfish attachment to their near and remote relatives — cannot be 
questioned. In reality, however, they were throughout the historic 
period little better than wild herdsmen and cattle-lifters in perpetual 
warfare with their neighbours, and raiders across the borders. And 
now they have turned "theologians" of an extremely acrid type, so 
that the sour teachings of Calvin and Knox are scarcely sour enough 
for them. The result is that " unamiable and uncongenial " is not 
too harsh a verdict, and all these traits sufficiently explain the 
feeling of deep-rooted animosity entertained towards them by most 
of their Lowland neighbours. 



Caucasic Division 



347 



Characteristics of the P-Kelts 

Great differences, but of another order, also exist between the 
Irish Q- Kelts and the Welsh P-Kelts, and these differences, which 
are both physical and moral, are commonly attributed to the 
Silurian, that is, the Iberian, element forming the substratum of the 
Welsh constitution. Perhaps enthusiasm, " super-exaltation," is the 
dominant note in the Welsh character, as it largely is in that of their 
possibly remote kinsmen, the Hamitic Berbers of Mauritania. This 
trait is well seen in the difificulty you find in getting a Welshman to 




Photo by J. ]V. McLj: 



FIG. 208. — A GROUP OF WELSH PEOPLE 



look facts straight in the face. While you are discussing a point in what 
he would call a cold-blooded sort of way, he is all on tenter-hooks, 
either dreaming of the past glories of his native land, or ready to 
fall into hysterics at the next revivalist meeting. There never was 
a bard equal to Taliesin, on whose grave at the base of Plynhmmon, 
if any one sleep " he will arise either a poet or a madman." There 
never was a language equal to Kymric, which was spoken in 
Paradise, but which also, thanks to this national sentiment, has 
been well preserved, and is still (1901) spoken by about 930,000 



348 



The World's Peoples 



in all parts of the Principality. There never were, they might add, 
such local disturbances for next to nothing as the so-called Rebecca 
riots of 1843, when bands of men disguised as women ("Rebecca 
and her Daughters") overran the country, and waged fierce war 
upon turnpike toll-collectors ! Being inclined to mysticism, passion- 
ately fond of controversy, and impatient of teachings imposed by the 
Sassenach, the whole nation naturally rejected the episcopalian 

doctrines of the English 
Church, and are nearly all 
dissenters, chiefly Method- 
ists, Baptists, and Cal- 
vinists. The Welsh are 
both a poetic and a musi- 
cal people, excellent 
singers and instrumenta- 
lists, as seen at the peri- 
odical eisteddfodau^ where' 
the victorious bards, mu- 
sicians, and vocalists are 
still often crowned in the 
name of the national hero. 
King Arthur, who was 
supposed to have himself 
founded and presided at 
similar gatherings. 




Photo by Prof. Petrucci 

FIG. 209. — BRETON MAN AND WOMAN 
P-Kelts akin to the Welsh 



Like their Welsh kins- 
men, the Bretons, who 
still speak a P-Keltic 
dialect, are enthusiasts, 
dreamers, and mystics. 
Dr. Bodichon, himself a Breton, describes those of full blood as 
of a palish yellow skin, with black or brown eyes, squat build, 
black hair and thick skull. " Like the Kabyle, he is obstinate 
and persistent, and his voice has the same intonation," another 
strong suggestion of North African origin. But there are several 
varieties, and the different groups show no love for each other, as 
appears from such uncomplimentary expressions as "A thief like 
a Leonard!"; "a traitor like a Tregorrois ! " ; "a blockhead like 
a Vannetais ! " ; " a brute like a Cornouaillais l " (Fig. 209). 



Gaucasic Division 349 

"The Bretons," says Michelet, "are not much French, but very 
much Gauls," who were also P-Kelts, and this is so far true that 
beneath their Christian professions old heathen customs still survive, 
and one district in the province of Leonais is even now called the 
"land of pagans." Here wells and large trees remain objects of 
veneration, and the mistletoe continues to be a sort of magic charm. 
The old shrines have been converted into chapels, but the old gods 
survive under other names. "Our Lady of Hatred," patroness of 
a chapel near Treguier, represents a ferocious Keltic goddess whom 
women daily invoke to destroy a detested husband, as children do 
for the death of aged parents. Young people still dance around the 
dolmens ; married couples touch them to secure a happy progeny ; 
the devout peasant crosses himself as he passes any of the numerous 
old cairns ; and the great mound near Carnac is visited by sailors' 
wives to pray for their husbands' safe return. Food offerings were 
formerly placed upon the dolmens, until the priests declared that the 
devil alone could profit by such offerings, and since then many of 
these structures have become objects of superstitious fear instead of 
veneration. But love and human nature still survive, and the ties 
of kindred are as strong and elastic as formerly among the Highland 
clansmen. 

The Itali 

There are curious contacts of the early Kelts with the //a//, 
which would seem to show that these branched off from the Aryan 
stem next after the Kelts. On entering Italy they soon united 
with the primitive Eurafrican Ligurians, and later absorbed the 
long-extinct Etrusca7is of the present province of Tuscany. The 
Itali themselves formed three main prehistoric groups — Umhrians 
in the north (the present Emilia and Umbria), Latins in the centre 
(Latium), and Oscansir^ the South (Naples and Sicily), each speaking 
a most marked variety of the original Italic mother-tongue. But 
with the spread of the Roman arms (the Romans were Latins), 
all were absorbed by the Latin variety, which still lives in its modern 
progeny — Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Langue d'Oc (South French), 
Langue d'Oil (North or Standard French), Rumanian, Walloon of 
Belgium, Rumansch or Ladin and Vaudois of Switzerland. Thus 
half of Europe has been Latinised, while the different nationalities 
still retain their distinctive physical and mental characters. The 



35° The World^s Peoples 

Romans gained no firm footing in Britain, which they held by 
military tenure, living in castra (fortified encampments) more than 
in towns, and disappearing on the first summons (410 a.d.) to come 
to the rescue of the Western Empire, sorely pressed by the northern 
barbarians, and later by Attila's devastating hordes. 

The Latin Nations : The French 

Of the modern Romanised nations by far the most important 
are the French, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians, and of these the 
French may claim the supremacy in political and social respects, 
at least during the last three centuries. This pre-eminence is mainly 
due to the gradual decline of Spain after the destruction of the 
Armada (1588), to the failure of Italy to establish her political 
unity until quite recent times (1870), and to the fusion of the 
French mediaeval states in a single powerful monarchy in the 
fifteenth century. 

After the Roman Conquest, the ancient Gauls, who, as above 
seen, were P-Kelts, became thoroughly Latinised in speech and 
general culture, and a complete fusion took place between the 
aboriginal populations and the Italian colonists, so that the people 
as a whole could now be called Gallo-Romans. Apart from the 
Italian factor, the constituent elements of these Gallo-Romans were 
much the same as those of the British peoples, but differed in their 
distribution and relative proportions. Thus the Iberians (Aquitani, 
Pictones, and later Vascones), who may be identified with the 
Neolithic long-heads, do not appear ever to have ranged much 
farther north than Brittany, and were Aryanised in pre-Roman times 
by P-speaking Kelts everywhere north of the Garonne. The 
prehistoric Teutons again, who had advanced in early times beyond 
the Rhine into the present Belgium, were mainly confined to the 
northern provinces {Gallia Belgica). Even the historic Teutons, 
chiefly Franks and Burgundians, penetrated little beyond the Seine 
in the north and the present Burgundy in the east, while the Vandals, 
Visigoths and a few others passed rapidly through to Iberia beyond the 
Pyrenees. The Burgundians survive only in the geographic expression 
Burgundy^ and the Franks in the national names France and Fretich. 
But in adopting these names the people did not become Germans 
but remained substantially Gallo-Romans, as they are to this day. 
Complete uniformity, however, has not yet been established, since 



o- 2 

O. — 

n > 

= 2 

o 

:: ^ 

— C 




352 The World*s Peoples 

there are two very marked sections that have hitherto persisted in 
full vigour, and are only now being slowly merged in one homogeneous 
nationality. These are the more numerous and more progressive 
northern and central populations, who speak the langue d'o'il, or 
standard French language, and the southerners, who speak the 
langue d'oc and are now mainly confined to the rural districts in 
Languedoc (Limousin and Provence). It may be explained that oc 
and oil are corrupt forms of the Latin affirmatives hoc and hoc-illud, 
and that the oc was the language of the Troubadours, more akin to 
Catalan and Italian, and oil that of the Trouveres, more akin to the 
Walloon of Belgium and the Norman-French of Normandy and 
for a time of the upper classes in England. The very form of 
these two typical words gives us an insight into the different 
character of the respective languages. Thus the open and full- 
sounding troubadour answers to the sonorous Italian trovatore, 
while the shortened trouvere suggests the enormous extent of 
phonetic decay in the northern dialect, which, for instance, has 
reduced the southern catena to chaine (chain). 

The two sections also display striking differences in their physical 
characters and mental qualities. Thus tall stature, fair or light- 
brown colour, blue or grey eyes, light-brown and even fair hair, 
prevail, as might be expected, in the north, these being traits 
common alike to the prehistoric Belgae, the Franks of the 
Merovingian and Carlovingian empires, and Rollo's Norsemen. 
With these are contrasted the southern peoples of the Mediterranean 
zone with short stature, olive-brown skin, dark brown or black eyes 
and hair. Both have long heads, but between the two lies the 
central (Ripley's Alpine) zone of short heads, as elsewhere explained 
(pp. 25 and 338). 

The tendency towards uniformity has proceeded much more 
rapidly in the urban than in the rural districts. Hence the citizens 
of Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles and other large towns present 
fewer and far less striking differences than the inhabitants of the old 
historical provinces. It is in these provinces that are still distinguished 
the loquacious and mendacious Gascon, the pliant and versatile 
Basque who can turn his hands to anything, the slow and wary 
Norman, the dreamy and fanatical Breton, the quick and enterprising 
Burgundian, and the bright, intelligent, and more even-tempered 
native of Touraine. The last mentioned may be taken as the 
typical Frenchman, occupying the heart of the land, and 



Caucasic Division 



JoJ 



holding, as it were, the balance between all the surrounding 
elements. 

Taken as a whole the modem Frenchman stands somewhat 
intermediate between the southern and northern peoples, less stead- 
fast than the Teuton, more energetic than the Italian, less personally 
independent than the Briton. 
The moral sentiment is also 
somewhat defective, as seen 
in the love of show and glory 
which is certainly stronger 
than the sense of duty, al- 
though in recent years there 
seems to be an improvement 
in this respect On the other 
hand the artistic feeUng, good 
taste and tact, are highly de- 
veloped, as seen in the un- 
affected horror of gaucJterie 
or clownishness. The purely 
intellectual qualities are un- 
questionably far above the 
average, as reflected in the 
scientific and literary work 
of the nation, and in the cul- 
tivated language which within 
certain Umits is almost an 
ideally perfect instrument of 
human thought, although still 
suffering from the enfeebling 
effects of the drawing-room 
and academic refinements of 
Bourbon times. The French 
excel also in conversational 

powers, and in all matters pertaining to etiquette and the social 
amenities where brilliancy and esprit find freer scope than the 
more soUd qualities of the reasoning faculty. It is noteworthy 
that France has produced no really pre-eminent poet and 
but few leaders of thought, such as Rabelais, Descartes, and 
Pascal (and even he was ^vrecked on the shoals of religious 
polemics), whereas epigrammatists, essayists, writers of memoirs 

23 




Froas m. pkatograph m ike A laMropolt^icmt 
Cctiation of tie Paris Jlas^um 

FIG. 211 — FREXCHMAX, AUVERGXAT 
A typical exain{de of Homo alpinus 



354 The World's Peoples 

and correspondence, chemists, astronomers, and pure mathema- 
ticians abound. 

With more outward polish, French culture as a whole penetrates 
perhaps less deeply through the social strata than does the refine- 
ment of the English cultured classes. At the same time the 
substantial qualities of patience, economy, and love of labour cannot 
be denied to the French peasantry, who thus act as a counterpoise to 
the extravagance and frivolity of urban life. By hoarding their small 
savings, and by domestic thrift verging on the sordid, they have made 
France one of the richest countries in the world, better able than 
most others to survive tremendous catastrophes and rise buoyantly 
above apparently overwhelming disasters. Thanks to these qualities, 
combined with a pronounced military spirit and love of conquest, 
the French people have played a leading part in the world's history 
since remote times, and have become an almost necessary factor in 
the general progress of mankind (Keane's Man, Past and Present). 

The Spaniards 

Few lands have been subject to greater ethnical vicissitudes, 
changes, shiftings, absorptions and assimilations of heterogeneous 
elements, dislocations and reformations of whole populations, than 
the Iberian Peninsula. First came the Eurafricans during the early 
and later Stone Ages, as shown by the remains, or, at least the 
works of primitive man found in many districts. Then followed, 
also from North Africa, the people who were known to the ancients 
as Iberians, gave their name to the whole region, were dolmen- 
builders, and during the Neolithic period sent colonies northwards 
to Gaul, Britain, and Scandinavia. Before the close of the same 
period the Kelts, moving southwards from Gaul, crossed the 
Pyrenees, formed alliances with their predecessors, and eventually 
united with them as the Keltiberians of the classic writers. The 
next arrivals were the Phoenicians and the kindred Carthaginians, 
who founded Carthagena, Cadiz, and several other flourishing 
seaports round the seaboard, and worked the rich silver and copper 
mines in the southern districts. In due course the Carthaginians 
spread their power and influence over a great part of the interior, 
and the consequence was that the Romans, looking on the country 
now called Hispania as an integral part of the Carthaginian 
empire, invaded and conquered it during the Second Punic War. 



Caucasic Division 



355 



Then the Iberians, like the Gauls, became assimilated in speech and 
culture to their Roman masters, all but the Basques, who still hold 
their own in the western Pyrenees. At the fall of the Western Empire 
several hordes of the " northern barbarians " invaded the peninsula, 
where the Visigoths founded an extensive monarchy and became 
Latinised, while the Vandals, after giving their name to the southern 
region, sti 11 
called (V) Anda- 
lusia, passed 
into Africa. 
But now again 
from Africa 
came fresh in- 
vaders, the fiery 
Arab Moham- 
medans with 
their Berber 
allies and Jewish 
proteges, who in 
the eighth cen- 
tury overran 
nearly the whole 
land, and es- 
tablished a 
powerful Cali- 
fate, which lasted 
for nearly 800 
years, and was 
not finally re- 
duced till to- 
wards the close 
of the fifteenth 
century. 

In the face of such endless changes and displacements, the 
wonder is not that the various sections of the population should 
present such wide differences in their physical and mental characters 
as to appear more like the disjecta membra of an erupted state 
than the common subjects of a united monarchy. The wonder 
rather is that, despite all these ethnical perturbations, they should 
still display sufficient uniformity as to be all called Spaniards. There 




Photo by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid 

FIG. 212. — PEASANTS OF GUADALAJARA, SPAIN 
The loosely worn shawl represents the old Roman toga 



356 The "World's Peoples 

are haughty Castilians, gay and frivolous Andalusians, industrious 
Catalonians, Galicians who look like a cross between the Portuguese 
and French. But all have certain general features in common, 
which proclaim their Spanish nationality (Figs. 212 and 213). 

The average Spaniard is rather undersized, but strong, mus- 
cular, of surprising agility, a great walker, and proof against every 
hardship. For these physical qualities he is indebted to his extreme 
sobriety and temperate habits, which indeed are proverbial. 

His moral qualities are no less remarkable. While indifferent 
to ordinary matters and home comforts, he is very resolute, 
courageous, and persistent, defending any cause he takes in hand 
to his last breath. The recovery of Spain from the Arabs took 
nearly seven centuries ; the efforts to subdue the Araucanians of 
South America were doggedly continued for over two hundred years, 
and the war of independence against Napoleon was an almost unex- 
ampled instance of pure patriotism. Their past glories and heroic 
deeds, such as those of the " Maid of Saragoza," are almost sufficient 
to justify the haughty air which in others might be regarded as 
presumptuous. No doubt the Spaniard is a boaster, but not without 
reason. He combines qualities which usually exclude each other, 
pomposity with kindhness, arrogance with consideration for the 
feelings of others. Trifles call forth a torrent of eloquent language, 
while in matters of real importance a word or a gesture will suffice. 
These contradictions in the national character give rise to the 
appearance of inconsistency, which foreigners are unable to under- 
stand, and which they themselves complacently describe as cosas de 
Espana. How, indeed, are we to explain or reconcile so much 
weakness associated with so many noble qualities, so many super- 
stitions combined with a fund of common sense, such unaccountable 
outbursts of sudden fury which make some English observers look 
on the Spaniard almost as a wild beast ? Yet despite such impulsive 
explosions he is at heart a fatalist like his former Moslem rulers, and 
easily accepts the inevitable with the remark that " What is to be, 
will be." Long ago Bacon observed that the Spaniards looked wiser 
than they were, and this would seem to be still true when we see the 
sedate Castilian giving himself up to reckless gambling, and showing 
at least outward indifference to impending ruin. 

The overthrow of the Moslem power was followed by two events, 
both of which, although of opposite orders, equally contributed to the 
decadence of the nation. These were the expulsion of the " Moors " 




Pho/o by J. Laurent & Co., Madrid 

FIG. 213. — PEASANTS OF SEGOVIA, SfAIN 
Very fine specimens of Old Castilians — tall, shapely, and well-dressed 



358 The World's Peoples 

(real or suspected Mohammedans) and of the Jews, with whom 
went not only much wealth but the best intellect of the country, and 
the discovery of the New World, which proved not a blessing but a 
curse in disguise. Most of the young men, all the enterprising and 
daring spirits, hastened to seek their fortunes beyond the seas, 
and Spain was at that time too thinly peopled to stand such a sudden 
drain on her natural resources. The vast amount of treasure — over 
two biUions sterling in two centuries — sent home from the colonies 
contributed still further to the rapid decay, for it corrupted the 
whole people. Money being obtainable without much effort, all 
honest labour ceased, and when the golden stream from abroad ran 
dry, the country was impoverished, most of the precious metals 
having found their way to more industrious lands whence Spain had 
now to procure her supplies, and had little to offer in exchange 
except "hard cash." History affords no other example of such a 
rapid decadence brought about without foreign aggression. An 
inheritance of the palmy days when the Spanish Court was the most 
formal and ceremonious in the civilised world, was that excessive 
craving for empty honours and titles which even still persists. 
Everybody wants to be at least a hidalgo, a curious word contracted 
from htjo-de-algo, " son of somebody," and meaning a nobleman of 
inferior rank, or a gentleman by birth. The number of "noblemen," 
although their privileges are now officially abolished, is perhaps larger 
in Spain than anywhere else in Europe, for the inhabitants of entire 
provinces, such as theVascongadas and the Asturias, claim to have 
" blue blood " in their veins. In the latter part of the eighteenth 
century no less than 480,000 "gentlemen " were registered, and if the 
proportion is the same now, there must be over 3,000,000 Spaniards 
who still claim to be " sons of somebody." Nearly 2,000 of these, 
the so-called grandees, enjoy the customary privilege of remaining 
covered in the presence of royalty. In Britain there is o}ie such 
privileged person — an Irish nobleman. 

The Portuguese 

The Portuguese, over whom now hangs a cloud, have yet had 
their heroic age, and to their credit will ever stand two great 
achievements — the rounding of the Cape, which opened to European 
enterprise the oceanic highway to the Far East, and the first circum- 
navigation of the globe by Magellan. During those flourishing times 



Caucasic Division 



359 



they were dominant in the Indian Ocean, and pushed the frontiers 
of their South American possessions from the Atlantic nearly to the 
foot of the Andean Cordilleras. But the nation never recovered from 
the temporary occupation of the country by Spain in the seventeenth 
centun,-, a baneful legacy of which, a mutual hatred of each other, 
is not yet quite extinct. For the Spaniard, the Lusitanians are 
pocos y locos, " few and 
fools," while formerly a 
popular signboard of 
Portuguese wayside inns 
was " Death to the 
Castilian." 

Like the Spaniards 
they are a very mixed 
people, with varying 
strains of Arab, Berber, 
Galician, Jewish, and 
even Negro blood in 
their veins. This blend 
of such diverse ele- 
ments has not resulted 
in a handsome race, 
and the Portuguese 
rarely present the 
shapely figures, and still 
more rarely the dignified 
bearing of their Cas- 
tilian neighbours. The 
features are as a rule 
somewhat irregular, with 
up-turned nose, rather 
thick lips, low stature, 
and ungainly carriage. 
The women are more graceful, at least in the northern districts, and 
although they cannot rival the fiery beauty of their Spanish sisters, 
they are distinguished by brilliant eyes, an abundance of fine black 
or very dark brown hair, animated features, and agreeable address. 

Travellers speak highly of the kindly disposition, courteous and 
friendly feeling of the peasantry towards strangers. The cruelties 
and atrocities committed by the Portuguese conquerers both in the 




F:G. 214. — A FORTUGUESE WOMAN 
The ugly hood is due to Moslem influence 



360 The Wofld^s Peoples 

Indies and the New World cannot be gainsaid, and have given the 
nation a bad reputation, although they are really kindhearted and 
sympathetic. They gamble but never quarrel ; they love bullfights, 
but tip the animal's horns with cork to prevent bloodshed, and they 
are exceedingly kind to domestic animals. 

Although they are endowed with a fair share of intelligence, the 
strictly mental qualities are not of a high order. Portugal has 
produced some eloquent speakers and a few good historians, but 
only one really great poet — Camoens, author of the national epic, " The 
Louisiade " — and no eminent artists or even painters, as Camoens him- 
self admits. In philosophy they have done nothing, unless indeed 
Spinoza may be put to their credit, for although a Jew and a native 
of Holland, he was still of Portuguese extraction. 

The Italians 

In prehistoric times Italy had already been divided into four 
distinct ethnical zones : i. The basin of the Po and surrounding 
valleys, occupied by a heterogeneous population of Ligurians from 
North Africa, Slavs (Venedi, Wends) from the Eurasian steppe, 
and P-Kelts from Gaul, these last being dominant, whence 
the expression Gallia Cisalpina applied to the whole region. 
2. Hetruria and some neighbouring districts, home of the Etruscans 
of unknown origin. 3. Umbria, Sabinum, Latium, Campania, 
Samnium, domain of the Italic peoples proper, chiefly Umbrians, 
Latins, and Oscans. 4. Apulia, Lucania, Brutium, that is, all the 
southern provinces with Sicily inhabited by lapygians, Messapians, 
some Ligurians and Oscans, Sicani, and Siculi with other aborigines 
mostly from North Africa, everywhere intermingled with early Greek 
settlers, whence the expression Magna Graecia applied to South 
Italy. Some of these peoples, such as the Etruscans, lapygians, 
and Messapians, were of uncertain origin ; but the great majority 
were certainly Aryans, mainly of the Keltic, Italic, Slavonic, and 
Hellenic branches. Nearly all the later intruders, Goths, Vandals, 
Heruli, Longobards and others towards the close of the Western 
Empire, Normans in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Albanians 
and Byzantine Greeks after the fall of Constantinople, were also 
Aryans, so that the immense majority of the present inhabitants 
must be regarded as of Aryan origin, as nearly all have for over 
two thousand years been of almost exclusive Aryan, mainly Latin, 
speech (Figs. ,2 1^-7). 




Phoio by Vasari, Rome 



FIG. 215. — ITALIAN WOMAN, ROME 
Young Roman women are generally good-looking, but soon fall oft 



362 



The Wofld^s Peopks 



Hence, with much local diversity, there is in the peninsula a 
certain uniformity of type by which the Italian may be readily 
distinguished from the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula and 
other South Europeans perhaps less affected by Aryan elements. 
But the dualism pervading the whole of the Aryan world exists 
also in Italy, where grey or blue eyes, fair or chestnut hair, florid 
complexion and tall stature prevail in the north, and are obviously 

to a large extent due 
to Teutonic intru- 
ders at the fall of 
the Empire. In the 
central and southern 
provinces bright 
black eyes and hair, 
somewhat pale or 
olive complexion, 
and medium or low 
stature are the domi- 
nant physical char- 
acters. In general 
the round heads of 
the Alpine zone 
which prevail in the 
north gradually grow 
longer southwards 
amongst the popu- 
lations of the Medi- 
terranean zone 
(pp. 25 and 339). 

Latin culture 
was scarcely affected 
by the northern barbarians, who were all rapidly absorbed, and 
left nothing but a few physical traits and the geographical ex- 
pression Lombardy. Hence the numerous local dialects owe next 
to nothing to the Teutonic tongues, and are all derived di- 
rectly, not from the classical language of Cicero or Virgil, but 
from the vernaculars, the colloquial forms current in the various 
provinces. These forms are referred to in a somewhat contemptu- 
ous way by Cicero, who calls them lingua rustica, or sermo cain- 
pestris, or ser/no plebeiiis. Nevertheless, they have triumphed, and 




From a photograph in the Anthropological Collection of the 
Paris Museum 

FIG. 216. — ITALIAN WOMAN, NAPLES 



Caucasic Division 



3^3 



it can be shown that, while the classic standard has perished, these 
" plebeian " forms survive in the modern Italian dialects. Thus the 
Italian future tetise amerb does not come from Latin amabo, but 
from the analytical vulgar form ainare habeo, which became amare-ho, 
amero. The tendency has everywhere been to substitute particles 
and auxiliaries for the Latin inflections, and this tendency has 
resulted in the total disappearance of the old declensions, of the 
neuter gender, and 

of a large part of ^ 

the old conjugations, 
with fresh synthetic 
formations in one or 
two instances, as in 
this very future 
amero. The remark- 
able uniformity with 
which the process 
has been carried out 
in the other neo- 
Latin tongues also — 
Rumanian, French, 
Spanish, Portuguese 
— in fact over a vast 
linguistic area 
ranging from the 
Black Sea to the 
Atlantic coast, is ex- 
plained by the great 
antiquity of the ana- 
lytical forms, which 
were already features 
of the vernaculars in Italy at a date prior to the founding ot the 
military and other colonies in Iberia, Gaul, Germany, and the Lower 
Danube. Hence these forms entered into the structure of the 
Romance tongues, all being the direct issue of colloquial Latin. 
Cicero himself writes scriptum habeo much in the sense of scripsi, 
and with this corresponds the Italian ho scrifto, and the French 
fat ecrit. 

The southern slopes of the Alps facing the plains of Lombardy 
are perhaps the most insalubrious tracts in the peninsula, worse even 




From a photograph in ihe Anthropological Collection of the 
Paris Museum 

FIG. 217.^ — ITALIAN 



364 The "World's Peoples 

than the malarious Campagna. This is attributed at least partly to 
the absence of sunshine in the secluded Alpine valleys, where 
goitre and idiotcy are very prevalent. In the valley of Aosta nearly 
all the women suffer from goitre, which, however, is here supposed 
to be due to the water flowing over magnesian rocks. The 
inhabitants of districts intersected by canals are afflicted by maladies 
traceable to miasmatic effluvia. The food of the peasantry is not 
sufficiently nourishing or varied to counteract these deleterious 
influences, and many die of pellagra, an incurable skin disease 
which is known only in countries where the flour of maize prepared 
as polenta (porridge) constitutes the principal article of food. In 
the province of Cremona fully one-fourth of the inhabitants are 
afflicted by this disease. The sanitary condition of the people is 
even worse in the rice-fields of Milan and the Polesina district. 
Here the women have often to stand for hours in the stagnant slimy 
water, and are obliged from time to time to pick off the leeches 
crawling up their legs. 

Yet the fertile valley of the Po is one of the most densely peopled 
regions in Europe. Every inch of ground has been brought under 
cultivation by the industrious Lombards, who are mostly engaged 
in agriculture. The capital invested in all kinds of field works, 
such as canals, embankments, terraces, or ronchi built up like flights 
of steps on the slopes of the hills, has been immense and defies 
calculation. The method of tillage also involves a vast amount 
of labour, for the peasant has not yet taken to the iron plough, 
but continues to till his plot with the spade. He is a gardener 
rather than a farmer, although improvements have already set in 
both in this and other respects. Unfortunately he also continues 
to 'wage merciless war not only against snipe, quails, and such like 
lawful game, but even against thrushes, nightingales, and all the 
other little songsters. Millions are said to be yearly captured by 
the nets with their decoys spread on the fields and along the hedges 
of all the hills. 

In the central provinces other relations prevail, and it is here 
perhaps that are met the best and most intellectual sections of the 
present Italian populations. Judging from their sepulchral and 
other vases, the ancient Etruscans were a somewhat uncouth race 
inclining to obesity, with broad shoulders, arched nose, retreating 
forehead, dark complexion, long head, curly hair, given to gluttony, 
but with a highly developed aesthetic sense. Their modern de- 



Divisic 



-aucasic Uivision 



365 



scendants, the Tuscans, and especially the Florentines, have 
inherited their artistic faculty, but not their baser qualities. The 
modern inhabitants of Tuscany are of a genial and kindly dis- 
position, quick-witted, and highly intelligent. Those of the plains, 
but not of the maremmas, are the most gentle of Italians ; they 
" live and let live," and are exceedingly good-natured. Although 
not lacking in courage, a 
peculiar trait in their char- 
acter is the horror with which 
they turn from a dead body. 
This is a legacy of the super- 
stitious past, when the spirits 
of the dead were supposed 
still to hover over their re- 
mains till put out of sight in 
the grave. During its flourish- 
ing period Florence took the 
lead in the great renascence 
movement, and became one 
of those centres of intel- 
lectual life such as Athens 
had been in the days of 
Pericles and Socrates, Arts, 
letters, science, political eco- 
nomy, all noble pursuits, were 
cultivated with an energy 
-scarcely ever equalled, never 
■ surpassed. The names of 
Giotto, Masaccio, Michael 
Angelo^ Leonardo da Vinci, 
Andrea del Sarto, Brunel- 
leschi, Savonarola, Galileo, 
Macchiavelli, without men- 
tioning the surpassing genius 
glorify half a dozen nations. 




Photo by Ch. Lejebure, per Professor Petrucci 

FIG. 218. — SWISS GUIDE 
Carries the alpenstock and rope for climbing 



of Dante, would be sufficient to 
Yet many more might be added, 
amongst them Amerigo Vespucci, who gave his name to the New 
World. 

In the southern provinces there are Greek survivals. Some 
districts still preserve the very finest types of Hellenic beauty, 
while the women in the Calabrian villages frequently perform a 



366 The World's Peoples 

sacred dance, which is kept up for hours, and resembles the 
representations we see on ancient vases ; only they dance before 
the church instead of the temple, and their ceremonies are blessed 
by Christian priests. Funerals are accompanied by weeping women, 
who collect their tears in lachrymatory vases as of old, and in the 
vicinity of Taranto children consecrate their hair to the manes of 
their ancestors. Old morals, no less than old customs have been 
preserved. Woman is still looked upon as an inferior being, and 
in the Reggio district the wives of the upper classes, who respect 
ancient tradition, still confine themselves to the gynaeceum (female 
apartment). They never visit the theatre, go out but rarely, and 
when they walk abroad are accompanied, not by their husbands, but 
by barefooted menials. 

Physically the Neapolitans, although undersized, are one of the 
finest races in Europe. The Calabrians, the Moliso hillmen, and 
the peasantry of the Basilicata are extremely well proportioned, 
erect, supple of limb, and agile, while the women often display a 
marked dignity in their features and general bearing. Their 
children also with their large black eyes and bright expression 
beam with intelligence, though too often emaciated by dire 
poverty. 

The prevailing ignorance is often a source of surprise, but 
must be attributed to the oppressive rule of the Bourbons, one 
of whom (Ferdinand II.) declared that he did not want his people 
to think. Under such a shameful administration, overthrown by 
Garibaldi, the people sank deeper and deeper in ignorance and 
superstition, and had recourse to brigandage and secret societies — 
Carbonari, Camorra, Mafia — in the vain hope of redressing their 
wrongs. Under an outward show of Christianity the primitive 
beliefs still flourish. The idolatrous Neapolitan bows down before 
the statue of St. Genaro, but swears at him if his miraculous 
blood does not quickly liquefy. Every town in the country has 
its patron saint, a lineal descendant of the old tutelar deity, who, 
if he fail to protect his votaries from any pending calamity, is 
treated as a traitor or common enemy. Not so long ago the 
villagers in parts of Calabria, annoyed by the continuance of a 
drought, put their venerated saints in prison, and Barletta has 
the melancholy honour of being the last town in Europe in which 
Protestants were burnt aUve. This was about the middle of 
the nineteenth century, and such atrocities would still be pos- 



'^gl 




Photo by M. Ch. Lef'ebure per Professor Petrucci 

FIG. 219.— GIRLS OF THE ENGADINE, SWITZERLAND 
In Sunday attire. Speak the Neo-Latin-Rumonsch language 



368 The WorId*s Peoples 

sible but for the firm and just administration of the present 
Government. 

Although now a French department, Corsica belongs ethnically 
to Italy, and here some of the least desirable of primitive social 
institutions would, so to say, appear to have taken final refuge. 
''The Corsicans," says a Genoese proverb, "all deserve hanging, 
but they know how to bear it," and history certainly bears witness 
to their patriotism and fearlessness. But it also tells us of foolish 
ambitions, petty rivalries, and, above all, an almost ferocious spirit 
of revenge. It is on record that to the practice of systematic 
vendetta about a thousand lives fell victims in the eighteenth 
century. Entire villages were decimated, and. in many districts 
every peasant's house was converted into a fortress, where the men 
v^ere constantly on the alert, while the cultivation of the land was 
le'ft to the women, who were protected by custom from outrage. 
'jThe ceremonies observed when a victim of the vendetta was brought 
home were terrible. The women gathered round the corpse, and 
one amongst them, usually a sister of the deceased, called down 
vengeance on the head of the murderer in almost blasphemous 
language. Thus the movement is kept going, and one depth calls 
on another till all are hushed in death. 

The Corsicans are pronounced democrats and even communists, 
and during the wars with France and Genoa in the eighteenth 
century all citizens were declared equal. It was these institutions 
that attracted the attention of Rousseau, who declared that "the 
little island would one day astonish Europe." The forecast may 
be said to have been verified by the career of its most famous 
son, Napoleon Bonaparte. 



The Hellenes or Greeks 

In the southern parts of the Balkan Peninsula the Hellenes, who 
appear to have been the next after the Itali to move from the Aryan 
home, came in contact with the flourishing Mykenaean culture, which 
had its chief centre in the neighbouring island of Crete. This 
recently revealed civilisation is credited by some authorities to the 
early Greeks themselves, but was more probably developed under 
Egyptian and Phoenician influences by the Eurafrican Pelasgians, 
who were the first inhabitants of Greece and the Archipelago. 




FIG. 220. — GREEK WOMAN 
The nose nearly in line with the forehead is Hellenic 



24 



37° 



The World's Peoples 



Hence it was that these Pelasgians, afterwards looked on as bar- 
barians (Herodotus), were on the contrary regarded by the early 
Hellenes as a superior race, and spoken of as " divine " in the 

Homeric writings {Iliad, 
Odyssey). 

On the mainland and in 
Asia Minor the Hellenes were 
already in prehistoric times 
constituted in three main 
divisions — 'the ^olians of 
Thessaly, Arcadia, and 
Boeotia ; the closely allied 
Dorians of Phocaea, Argos, 
and Laconia; and the more 
distantly related lonians of 
Asia Minor and Attica. In 
the national traditions these 
groups are supposed to have 
sprung from ^olus, Dorus, 
and Ion, offspring of Deu- 
calion's mythical son Hellen, 
whence it came about that 
eventually all called them- 
selves Hellenes, and recog- 
nised their common racial 
unity with a less firmly knit- 
ted Greek nationality. Greek 
(Graeci) was the name of a 
small western tribe with which 
the Romans first came in 
contact, and then extended 
the term to all the Hellenes, 
who never called themselves 
Greeks in a collective sense. 

Their distinctive idioms 
(Aeolic, Doric, Ionic, and 
Attic) were all cultivated, but became gradually merged under the 
Eastern or Byzantine Empire in the so-called " common dialect," that 
is, the current speech of the Greek world. This wonderfully rich and 
melodious language still survives in a somewhat degraded form in 




FIG. 221. — GREEK WOMAN 



Caucasfc Division 



371 



the Romaic or neo- 
Hellenic tongue of modern 
Greece and the Levant. 
Since the restoration of 
Greek independence great 
efforts have been made to 
revive the old Attic form 
in all its purity, and some 
modern writers and 
journalists now affect a 
style differing little from 
that of the classic period. 
The Greek language has, 
however, disappeared al- 
together from wSouthern 
Italy {Graecia Magtia), 
Sicily, Syria, Cyrenaica, 
and the greater part of 
Egypt and Asia Minor, 
where it was long domi- 
nant. With it perished 
the Alexandrian school, 
dying glory of Hellenic 
culture, killed by the 
Moslem Arab irruption in 
the seventh century a.d. 

The Teutons 

A northern route, pro- 
bably down the Vistula, 
from the Eurasian steppe 
must have been followed 
by the early Teutons to 
their present seats in 
North Germany and Scan- 
dinavia. All historic 
records point in this di- 
rection, and the most trustworthy writers conclude that South 
Sweden and Denmark with Mecklenburg and Pomerania form the 




FIG. 222. — AN AUSTRIAN LADY 
Pure Germanic features 



372 



The "World's Peoples 



German Urheimat ("primeval home") since the New Stone Age. 
They began to range eastwards in the Bronze period, and some- 
what later two distinct trade routes can be followed through 
Bornholm and Jutland, through which the Cimbrians, Teutons, 
Harudi, Heruli and others streamed forth to overrun half of 
Europe. 

These great waves of early migration began some time before 

the new era, and 
while some set south 
and west, others 
flowed south-east 
towards their original 
Eurasian seats. 
Amongst these may 
have been the 
Thracians and the 
kindred Phrygians, 
whom many believe 
to have been of Ger- 
manic stock. Early 
mention is also made 
of the Bastarnae, 
who are figured on 
the Adamklissi 
monument in the 
Dobruja (Lower 
Dacia) as dressed 
only in a kind of 
trousers, with long 
pointed beards and 
defiant but noble 
features. That is the 
first picture we have of a Teutonic people, and the same type 
recurs over one hundred years later both on the Column of 
Trajan and on the Arch of Marcus Aurelius. Later came the 
Moeso-Goths, that is, the Goths of Moesia (Servia and Bulgaria), 
who had all the physical and even moral characters of the Old 
Teutons, as seen in the Emperor Maximinus, who was born in 
Thrace of a Goth by an Alan woman, and is described as very tall, 
strong, handsome, with light hair and milk-white skin, temperate 




T^rom photo in Dr. Uhleiihuth's collection 

FIG. 223.— GERMAN WOMAN 



Caucasic Division 



373 



in all things, and of great mental energ}\ Before their absorption 
in the surrounding Bulgar and Slav populations these southern 
Goths were evangelised in the fourth centurj' by their bishop 
Ulfilas (" Wolf"), whose fragmentary translation of Scripture, pre- 
served in the Codex Argenteus of Upsala, Sweden, is the oldest and 
most precious monument of early Teutonic speech extant. 

The ■' Northern Barbarians " 
As East Europe seemed at times destined to become Mongolised 




From a photo by Philip H. Fincham 

FIG. 224.— A GROUP OF DUTCH BOYS 
Of Low German stock and speech 

(P- 337)) SO the West threatened to become Teutonised when the 
Empire was laid in the dust by the incursions of the Vandals, 
Burgundians, Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and the other " northern 
barbarians." But all these Germanic peoples were more completely 
absorbed by Latin Europe than were the Ugro-Finns and the 
Mongolo-Tatars by the eastern Slavs. In Russia several Finnish 
and Turki groups still survive. But in South and West Europe all 



374 



The Wofld^s Peoples 



the northern hordes without a single exception have been sub- 
merged in the surrounding populations of Roman culture, leaving 
behind them nothing but such geographical names as France (from 
the Franks), Burgundy (from the Burgundians), Lombardy (from 




From a photo by Philip H. Fincham 

FIG. 225.— DUTCH GIKLS 
Sturdy and somewhat ungainly, like their mothers 

the Longobards), and Andalusia, that is, Vandalusia (from 
the Vandals). 

The Anglo-Saxons and English 

Far different were the results in Britain, where there was little 
Roman culture (p. 350), and where consequently the whole land was 
Teutonised in speech and politico-social institutions by the Anglo- 
Saxon, Jute, and Frisian invaders of the fifth century. A few 
towns — Chester, Doncaster, AVinchester, Chichester — still attest the 



Caucasic Division 



375 



former Roman occupation, but all the rest is what we must now call 
English, and London, for instance, is surrounded by such re-named 
districts as Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons), INIiddlesex 
(^Middle or Central Saxons), and the former kingdom of Wessex 
(West Saxons). The transformation is complete, and thereby was 









1 




0^^ 




IH 


tk 


mk ^ m 




fl 


mA 


^9 


^^^^■7m 


11 


>^^^^Q ^^Bl 


HH 




W 


---— ^. <^"^^^^B 


^^^^^^^^^^^1 




Mm J 


— ■-•^ ^ 


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FIG. 226. — A DUTCH WOMAN OF MARKEX 
Province of North Holland, backbone of the nation 

added a third and vastly preponderating constituent element to the 
already mixed populations of these islands, who are no longer 
merely Ibero-Kelts (p. 343), but Ibero-Kelto-Teutons. How thorough 
was the change cannot be fully understood without reference to the 
language factor, which, but for its numerous Latin and French 
loan-words, would never be known to have been developed in any 



37 6 The World's Peoples 

region except Germany itself. It belongs to the northern or Low 
German branch of the Teutonic family, the same branch as the 




FIG. 227. — A DANISH WOMAN 
The features show kinship with the East Anglians 

Moeso-Gothic of Ulfilas (p. 3 7 3), and, despite extreme pressure from 
the Norman- French, continued for nearly three hundred years 
(1066-1350), has remained faithful to that connection] in its inner 



-aucasic 



Divisi 



ivision 



377 



structure and all its grammatical features, which betray scarcely a 
trace of Latin or neo-Latin influences. All the particles, such as b}\ 
from, with, under, over \ all the pronouns {he, she, it, tvho, which, 
with their changes); all the few surviving nominal and verbal 
endings ('^, s, ing, ed and so on) are purely Teutonic without a 
single exception ; and although the foreign words are more numerous 
in the dictionary, 
those of Anglo- 
Saxon origin im- 
mensely preponder- 
ate in the ordinary 
spoken and written 
language. 

This English 
tongue, as thus con- 
stituted, is the 
richest, most pliant, 
and generally the 
most serviceable of 
any form of speech, 
and is now also 
more widely dif- 
fused, and spoken 
by more people as 
their mother- 
tongue than any 
other. In 1907 it 
was estimated that 
English was the 
current language of 
about 140,000,000 
in the British 
Empire and the United States. There are here and there 
symptoms of changes and local developments ; but many of the 
so-called " Americanisms " are really old English survivals, land 
it is probable that the spread of education and literature will 
prevent any serious disintegration for many generations, if not 
permanently. 




Photo by Lindhaus, Copenhagen 

FIG. 22S. — DANISH GIRLS 
Norse branch of the Teutonic family 



378 The "Wofld^s Peoples 

The English 

As the English language has become what the Germans call it, 
the Welt-sprache, the chief medium of intercommunication between 
civilised nations, the English themselves have become in several 
respects the dominant people amongst both civilised and uncivilised 
races. Including their Anglo-American kinsmen, who take pride 
in calling themselves " Anglo-Saxons," .they hold unchallenged 
sway over the whole of America north of Mexico, over the West 
Indies, parts of South America, South Africa from the Cape to 
Lake Tanganyika, North Africa from Egypt to the equator, most of 
Central and West Sudan with the Gold and Slave Coasts, nearly 
the whole of Australasia, with the greater part of Polynesia and 
Melanesia, the Philippines, and Southern Asia from the frontiers 
of Siam to those of Persia, and all the high seas, altogether nearly 
a fourth part of the world and a fourth part (400,000,000) of its 
inhabitants. Moreover, there are wide territories in Africa, Arabia, 
East Asia and elsewhere which do not oflScially form part of the 
British Empire or of the United States, but where English or 
American influence is nevertheless paramount, and where the 
request of a British or American Consul is equivalent to a command. 
Travellers who explore distant lands contribute in no small degree 
to the extension of these ever-growing influences, for these pioneers 
are rightly or wrongly regarded as the forerunners of future conquest. 
There is not a country in the world where these travellers and explorers 
are not to be met with, either in search of adventures or in quest 
of " big game," or else to do honour to their native land by fresh 
exploits and discoveries. When we add to this the fact that the 
Monroe doctrine, though not universally accepted, practically sur- 
renders the overlordship of the whole of the New World to the 
Anglo-Americans, it is easily seen that, humanly speaking, the future 
destinies of mankind must be largely controlled by the peoples of 
English speech. 

This proud position, acquired within the last two hundred years, 
must be mainly attributed to the sterling qualities of the English 
race, in which the personal element is most marked and is char- 
acterised by an intense love of freedom and independence combined 
with an almost cold-blooded indifference to risks and dangers, 
a suppressed_feeling of sentiment which expresses itself in few 
words but nevertheless burns with a fierce intensity beneath the 



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Si. 






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^^^^^^^^^^H^^ yt g<~Q^ 








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BW 4 I^H 


1 


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E^^il 










' ^Mi 


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m 


^:-ky*-'^^ 








■^^ym«^ 


^^^% Bfcii^ 


%■ 




• 1 










■P^"'' .-.^^.^i< ' 



38o 



The World's Peoples 



surface, and lastly a restless spirit of enterprise which loves adven- 
ture for its Own sake and carries those disinherited by the laws 
of entail to the ends of the earth in quest of new homes and 
new fortunes. The young Frenchman is always his mother's 
son, and clings to the paternal roof till drawn away by con- 
scription or the glittering attractions of the boulevards. But the 

young Briton is his 
own master, and if 
no opening occurs 
in the professions or 
in trade his first im- 
pulse is to seek one 
abroad. 

The English race 
has been charged 
with a lack of imagi- 
nation, and even 
with dulness. It is 
a strange charge 
(mainly attributable 
to a reserved and 
almost impassive ex- 
terior) to bring 
against a people who 
have created the 
finest literature in 
the world, not ex- 
cepting the ancient 
Hellenic, whose 
poetry stands un- 
rivalled apart even 
from Shakespeare, 
and who have pro- 
duced men of surpassing genius in philosophy from Friar Bacon 
and E'rancis Bacon to Herbert Spencer, in mechanics, engineering, 
physics, chemistry, and the natural sciences, from Gilbert, dis- 
coverer of terrestrial magnetism, to Newton, the greatest name in 
science, who laid down the laws that control the inorganic world ; 
Darwin, who established those of the organic world ; Priestly, who 
gave us oxygen ; Watts, who started the steam-engine j Davy, who 




Pholo by W. S. Campbell 

FIG. 230. — AN ENGLISH GIRL 



Caucasic Division 381 

discovered the principles of electro-chemistry ; Dalton, who estab- 
lished the atomic theory; Faraday, the great elucidator of electric 
phenomena ; Clerk Maxwell, who formulated the mathematical laws 
of the physical sciences ; and Lyall, father of modern geology ; 
Harvey, Stephenson, Bell, Kelvin, Edison, and a host of others. 
They are here mentioned as a reply to those who often assert that 
to the French are due all the inventions, and that the English only 
improve upon them. For one French it would be easy to produce 
ten or a dozen English and American inventors. 

There is a perceptible strain of vulgarity in the middle classes 
which leads to snobbishness, and betrays a lack of good taste and 
of the aesthetic sense. But it was not always so, and the architec- 
tural triumphs of the mediaeval artists, the astonishing skill of the 
Elizabethan ladies at needlework, the acknowledged widespread 
musical talent of early times and other indications, clearly show 
that the English were formerly an artistic people. But then came 
the great wave of puritanism, which turned the churches into barns, 
cleared out the organs, Knox's "kist full o' whistles," laid its pro- 
fane hands on all things beautiful, and vulgarised the nation in 
the spirit of the odious Calvinistic teachings. But the revival, 
which began with Wedgwood in the eighteenth century, and has 
been carried on by Reynolds, Turner, and some other supreme 
artists, still continues, and is full of promise for the future. 



The Scotch 

The Lowland Scotch, who are mainly of Angle descent with 
no doubt a considerable strain of Caledonian, Pictish, and Norse 
blood, have every right to call themselves Englishmen, although 
by a curious sort of wilfulness they prefer the term " Briton " or 
"North Briton," to which they have little or no right. In any 
case, they share in the good and indifferent quahties, as well as in 
the glorious inheritance of the " Southern Britons," although there 
are local modifications, by which a Scotchman can nearly always 
be distinguished from an average Englishman, if not from a 
Northumbrian and other borderers. He is bigger, more bony and 
brawny or muscular, taller especially in the south-west, more hard- 
featured, and in temperament more steadfast, dogged, and dour. 
It is noteworthy that the national poet Douglas refers this highly 



382 



The"World*s Peoples 



characteristic word " dour " to Dardomus (read Dardanu.s, that is, 
the Trojan hero of that name), a clear indication that this trait was 
regarded as of long standing. Indeed, the Scotch character gene- 
rally is of long standing, as appears from the old chronicler Fordun, 
who draws the following contrast between the Lowlanders and the 
Highlanders of the fourteenth century, quite in the spirit of a modern 
ethnologist : 

" The manners and customs of the Scots vary with the diversity 




Pholo by W. S. Campbell 



FIG. 231. — SCOTCH PIPERS 



of their speech, for two languages are spoken among them — the 
Scottish [Gaelic] and the Teutonic, the latter of which is the 
language of those who occupy the seaboard and plains, while the 
race of Scottish speech inhabits the highlands and outlying islands. 
The people of the coast are of domestic and civilised habits, trusty, 
patient, and urbane, decent in their attire, affable and peaceful, 
devout in divine worship, yet always prone to resist a wrong at the 
hands of their enemies. The highlanders and people of the islands, 
on the other hand, are a savage and untamed nation, rude and in- 
dependent, given to rapine, ease-loving, of a docile and warm 



Caucasic Division 



disposition, comely in person, but unsightly in dress, hostile to the 
English people and language, and, owing to diversity of speech, even 
to their own nation, and exceedingly cruel. They are, however, 
faithful and obedient to their king and country, and easily made to 
submit to law if properly governed" {Chrofi., II). 

Until the 
development of 
the mining and 
manufacturing 
industries in the 
nineteenth 
century, the 
Lowlanders de- 
pended almost 
exclusively on 
agriculture for 
their sustenance. 
Formerly the 
land was very 
carelessly tilled, 
and often over- 
run with gool 
and other ob- 
noxious growths. 
But during the 
Napoleonic wars 
agriculture be- 
came a highly 
remunerative in- 
dustry, and the 
processes were 
so rapidly im- 
proved that " by 
1810 it almost 

seemed as if the fields of East Lothian had been touched by the wand 
of the enchanter. A single generation of men had seen the hus- 
bandry of their country rise from barbarism to take a first rank, if 
not the foremost place, in the agriculture of Britain and of the 
world " (Skirving, quoted by G. G. Chisholm). 

Intellectually the Lowlanders rank high amongst Western peoples. 




FIG. 2^2.— SWEDISH MAN AND WOMAN 



384 



The Wofld^s Peoples 



They are distinguished especially in poetry, romance, and philo- 
sophy. Kant was half a Scotchman, and to Scottish genius is due 
the invention of logarithms, that most ingenious device for shortening 

mathematical calcula- 
tions. The world is 
also indebted to Scotch 
medical science for the 
first effective anaesthe- 
tics, especially chloro- 
form, which has afforded 
greater relief to suffer- 
ing humanity than any 
other surgical appliance 
since the days of Hip- 
pocrates. Lastly, men- 
tion may be made of 
landscape gardening, 
which has been brought 
to the highest perfection 
in the Lowlands, and 
throughout the civilised 
world, by Scottish ex- 
perts. 

The Slavs and 
Lithuanians 

Herodotus tells us 
(iv. 21) that when you 
cross the Don west- 
wards, you leave the 
Scythians behind you 
and enter the territory 
of theSarmatians. The 
information would be 
more useful if we knew 
what precise meaning the ancients attached to these extremely vague 
ethnical terms. It is, however, generally understood that the 
Scythians belonged to the Mongol division, while the Sarmatians 
were the Aryan progenitors of the present Slav peoples. If so, their 




Phoio by Sebach 



FIG. 233. — CROATIAN 
Akin to the Servian Slavs 



Caucasic Division 



385 



original domain comprised the western section of the Eurasian 
steppe between the Don and the Carpathians. In NeoUthic or 
early prehistoric times they moved under divers names — Veneti or 
Heneti, that is, Wends ; 
Slavs or Slovenes ; Croa- 
tians; Sorbs or Serbs, 
and many others — still 
westwards to the head of 
the Adriatic (the present 
Venezia), and perhaps 
down the Vistula to the 
shores of the Baltic, 
where mention is also 
made of Veneti by the 
ancients. The movement 
was continued far into 
mediaeval times, when 
great overlappings took 
place, and when nu- 
merous hordes, now 
generally called Slavs, 
ranged over Central 
Europe to Pomerania (a 
Slav word), and beyond 
the Elbe to Suabia. 
Most of these have long 
been Teutonised ; but a 
few of the Polabs (" Elbe 
Slavs") still survive as 
Wends in Prussian and 
Saxon Lausatia. Farther 
east the Chekhs and 
Slovaks still hold their 
ground in Bohemia and 
Moravia, as the Poles 
(" Lowlanders ") do in 

Posen and the Vistula basin, and the Rusniaks or Ruthenians with 
the closely allied " Little Russians " in the Carpathians, Galicia, and 
Ukrania (Figs. 233, 234, 235, 237). 

From the Carpathians (another Slav name meaning " High- 

25 




FIG. 234 — CROATIAN WOMAN 



386 



The World's Peoples 



lands ") numerous groups collectively called Sorbs or Serbs moved 
southwards beyond the Danube, and in the seventh and eighth 
centuries overran and nearly Slavonised most of the Balkan 

Peninsula, Greece in- 
cluded. But under 
pressure from the By- 
zantines, Bulgars, 
Albanians and others, 
these Yugo-Slavs 
("Southern Slavs") 
gradually withdrew to 
the northern districts, 
where they settled 
down permanently as 
Servians, Dalmatians, 
Montenegrins ("Black 
Highlanders "), Bos- 
nians, Croatians, and 
Slovenes. They 

sometimes call them- 
selves the " Seven 
Nations " {Severenses) , 
with reference to the 
five eponymous heroes, 
the brothers Klukas, 
Lobol, Kosentses 
Miikl, and Khrobat, 
and their two sisters 
Tuga and Buga, who 
in the national tra- 
ditions led the way 
from Pannonia and the 
headwaters of the Elbe 
to their present seats 
south of the Danube. ] 
In their own ' 
language the national name Slav means either "glory," or 
" speech," as if they alone spoke really intelligible tongues. 
But in most European languages this word has come to mean 
" slave," the explanation being that during the struggle for 




P)wio by Milan Jovanovilch, Belgrade 

FIG. 235.— SERVIAN WOMAN 
Dress shows the national love of finery 



388 The World's Peoples 

the supremacy in Central Europe the Slav captives sold as slaves 
were so numerous that Slav and bondman became equivalent ex- 
pressions. Elder brothers of these Slavs were the Letto- 
Lithuanians, who are now confined to the north-western provinces 
of Russia, but formerly occupied a wide domain in Prussia and 
between the Baltic and the Black Seas. Their seniority is attested 
by their national speech, which is not only older than Slavonic, but 
comes nearest to Greek and Sanskrit, and is in fact by far the 
most archaic of all still spoken Aryan languages. 

The Russians 

None of these terms. Wend, Serb, or even Slav, have much 
currency in Russia, where the people have always called themselves 
Russ or Ross, probably a corruption of Ricotsi, " Northmen," in 
reference to Rurik and his Norse followers who acquired the 
political supremacy in the ninth century. In their original seats 
between Novgorod in the north and Kiev in the south, these 
Russian Slavs have not only recovered from the fierce Mongolo- 
Turki and Finnish tornadoes by which the eastern steppes were 
repeatedly swept for over 1,500 years, but have in recent historic 
times displayed a prodigious power of expansion second only to 
that of the British peoples. The Russians — Great, Little, and 
White Russians — whose political empire now stretches continuously 
from the Baltic to the Pacific, have already assimilated most of the 
Mongol elements in East Europe, have founded compact settlements 
in Caucasia and Siberia, and have planted numerous pioneer groups 
of colonists in the Amur basin. They number collectively over 
100,000,000, and as their domain of some 9,000,000 square miles 
is more compact than that of the English peoples, some thoughtful 
observers have feared lest an exploded "Yellow scare" may be 
followed by a very real " Panslav terror." But this possible danger 
has been averted by the late Russo-Japanese war, one of the far- 
reaching results of which is the permanent exclusion of the Russian 
flag from the Pacific Ocean, at least as a dominant factor. On the 
other hand, many parts of East Siberia itself are exposed to the 
deadly rivalry of future Chinese agricultural immigrants. 

The Russians being, next to the English, the most numerous 
of civilised peoples, and the vast majority being mujiks (peasants), 
special attention may be claimed for the national temperament, on 



Caucasic Division 



3S9 



which the future of humanity itself so largely depends. Dr. Howard 
P. Kennard, the latest and one of the very best observers, gives 
us a most graphic account of the mujik with his long sheepskin 
coat, originally of a yellowish brown, but now a polished dirty 
mahogany hue, crumpled and creased by age, and veneered with 
a greasy shine born of the wear of years ; a cord about the middle ; 
a pair of enormous feet and ankles encased in voluminous folds 
of felt, with strips 
of leather for soles, 
the whole encircled 
with strands of 
cord; a high- 
peaked pyramidal 
sheepskin cap, from 
under the brim of 
which protrude 
here and there 
wisps of an un- 
kempt shaggy head 
of hair and tawny 
yellow beard, a pair 
of vacant, lustreless 
eyes, and the tip 
of a broad spread 
nose. 

This is a vivid 
picture of the out- 
ward appearance of 
four-fifths of the 
people over whom 
the Tsar holds sway. Inwardly they are almost unchangeable 
because they live in unchangeable surroundings which offer no 
stimulus to progress. They hear no speech ; they see no scenes ; 
they are incapable of observation ; they possess no understand- 
ing ; their brain never works except in reference to objects 
that hit them between the eyes ; but they simply act like beasts of 
burden, knowing neither the why nor the wherefore, neitner asking 
nor expecting to be asked, neither knowing nor wanting to know, look- 
ing neither to right nor to left, their heads bowed down — dreaming, 
sleeping — oblivious to all sights and sounds, winds and weather — 




Photo by J. Daziaro, St. Petershurg 

FIG. 237. — WOMEX OF LITTLE RUSSIA 
Akin to the Ruthenians of Galicia 



390 The World's Peoples 

sheepskin without, sheep's brains within. The ignorance and stupidity 
of the masses pass all belief, but may be understood when we 
read of hundreds of villages, and even small towns, possessing no 
knowledge at all of letters, of reading and writing. It seems almost 
incredible that people so poorly equipped can eke out an existence 
of any kind. And the wretched state of filth and squalor in which 
the Russian peasant exists is better imagined than described. 

Unfortunately his very temperament tends to perpetuate his 
degraded condition. Dr. Kennard states flatly that he is immoral 
and lazy to the core ; he loves nothing better than to have just 
enough money or provisions in hand to allow him to have a good 
long drinking-bout and a longer sleep. The peasant, when not 
actually working, does not know what to do except sleep ; and this 
he does with consummate ease. He is a spendthrift of the most 
pronounced type, and in laziness has no equal. He is moreover 
dishonest in his petty dealings with his neighbours, a downright cheat, 
in fact. "Come, buy, buy!" he cries. "I am a dreadful rogue; 
but you cannot get these articles that I sell anywhere in the market. 
Ha, ha ! You smile and think you know all about it ; but believe 
me, I will cheat you ; but you will be satisfied none the less. None 
can cheat so nicely as I. But you will love me for it, for none in 
the market can sell a thing which is worth fifty kopeks for two 
roubles like I can. These are English goods — they are really 
German, but who's to know that ? They are Spanish, real Spanish, 
— but that is a lie, of course, for I am a Russian, and all Russians 
lie" {The Russian Peasant^ 1907)- 

But many of these Russian mujiks have emigrated to Siberia, 
where they have founded flourishing agricultural establishments, 
and developed some excellent qualities little practised by their 
western kinsmen. When Prince Borghese's motor passed through 
from Pekin to Paris in 1907, he could have scarcely overcome 
the difficulties of the route but for the willing and intelligent aid 
proferred him by these Siberian peasants. Everywhere he found 
them to be, not only extremely hospitable and friendly, but most 
useful in rendering timely assistance, and especially in the skill 
and rapidity which they displayed in hewing down timber, and 
converting it into wheels or any other required forms. Some 
years ago it was supposed that a democratic spirit was growing 
up amongst these exiles, who were reported to be looking more 
eastwards to America than westwards to the fatherland. But the 




Photo by AvanzD, Moscow 

FIG. 238. — GREAT RUSSIANS, EAST EUROPE AND SIBERIA 
The chief branch of the Slav family ; their log huts are burnt out about every seven year 



392 



The WoAd*s Peoples 



movement, if it ever existed, appears to have been arrested, and 
little is now heard of a " Siberian Republic " (Fig. 238). 

The Asiatic Aryans : Iranic and Indic Branches 

From their primeval homes on the Eurasian steppe the primitive 
Aryans not only swarmed into Europe (see above), but also 




Photo by Messrs. Newton & Co. 

FIG. 239. — ARMENIAN SOLDIERS 
Of Aryan speech but somewhat Semitic type 



branched off southwards into the Iranian plateau, and the Indo- 
Gangetic plains of Hindustan. These two regions have been 
completely Aryanised in the same sense as Europe has been 
Aryanised, that is, in speech and general culture. From Western 
Irania (Armenia and Kurdestan) right through to the Ganges 
delta, and up the Lower Brahmaputra (Assam), all the languages 
now current amongst the settled and cultured peoples are exclusively 
members either of the Iranic or the Indic branches of the Aryan 
mother-tongue. Iranic prevails in the west, where there is a single 
non-Aryan survival, the Brahui of East Baluchistan, which may 



394 



The World's Peoples 




be compared with Basque, 
the single non-Aryan sur- 
vival in West Europe. 
Indie is supreme in the 
east, where little else sur- 
vives except the rude speech 
of the uncultured Mongo- 
loid and Dravido-Kolarian 
aborigines between the 
Himalayan slopes and the 
Vindhya range. Indie has 
even crossed the Vindhyas 
and encroached to a con- 
siderable extent on the 
Deccan, which is the proper 
domain of the numerous 
cultured Dravidian popula- 
tions. 



The Armenians 



Photo by Captain M. Le Ferrar 
FIG. 241. — BALUCHI FROM THE DISTRICT 
OF DERA GHAZI KHAN 



The borderlands be- 
tween Asia Minor and Irania 
have been occupied from 
time immemorial by the 
Armenians, nearly all within the present Turko-Russian frontiers, 
and their deadly foes, the Kurds, who are partly in Turkey and 
partly in Persia. Despite their perennial hostility, which is mainly 
due to religious motives, all the Armenians being Christians, all 
the Kurds Mohammedans, they are both members of the Aryan 
family, the Kurds speaking an Iranic tongue closely allied] to 
Persian, the Armenians a peculiar Aryan tongue the position of 
which in the family has not yet been clearly ^determined. The 
Armenian physical type is also peculiar, and remarkably uniform, 
the salient features being a darkish brown complexion, extremely 
short heads (mean cephalic index about 88° or 90°), and large 
hooked nose, not perceptibly different from that of most Jews. 
These are very old racial traits, since at SenjirH, the Sammal of 
the Assyrian texts, have been found numerous Hittite carvings with 



Caucasic Division 



395 



figures of strikingly Armenian type, so that we can scarcely be 
wrong in regarding the inhabitants of Sammal as the ancestors of 
the modern Armenians (Fig. 239). The Armenians also resemble 
the Jews in their capacity for trade, which till lately was almost 
entirely in their hands. They owned nearly all the capital of 
the country, and the money market was thus mainly ruled by 
them — hence much of the envy, heartburnings, and persecutions to 
which they have been subjected in recent years. Timid and 
of laconic speech, they display at least an outward show of 
submission to their rulers, whom they inwardly despise. Since 
the conquest of their ancient kingdom by the Turks they have 
scarcely ever sought to recover their national independence, and 
even when driven to despair by the butcheries of 1894-96, they 
nowhere ventured to make a resolute stand against their oppressors 
except in the district 
of Zeitun. 

The Armenian 
women are little 
better off than their 
Moslem sisters, being 
practically the 
drudges of the house- 
hold. All menial 
work is performed by 
the wife, who waits 
on her husband at 
his meals, which she 
never shares with him. 
Although unveiled in- 
doors, she is never 
seen by strangers, 
since even at enter- 
tainments she has to 
withdraw with the 
other women to a 
room set apart for 
the purpose. This 
is usually raised a few 

feet above the level PMo by Captain M.LeFerrar 

FIG. 242. — BALUCHI FROM THE DISTRICT OF 

of the large central dera ghazi khan 




396 



The World's Peoples 



hall, and shut off by means of a wooden lattice, whence, without 
being seen, the women command a view of the banquet below. 




Photo by Messrs. Bourne & Shepherd _ __, 

FIG. 243. — KASHMIRI PEOPLE (ARYAN) 

Speak a neo-Sanskritic tongue, and excel as weavers 

The Armenian race, whose national name is Haik or Haikan, 
formerly numbered about 8,000,000, but was reduced (1900) to 
little over 2,300,000, distributed as follows : 



39^ The "World's Peoples 



850,000 

1,000,000 

150,000 

250,000 

60,000 



Caucasia and Russia in Europe 
Turkish Armenia and Asia Minor 
Persian Armenia 

Turkey in Europe and the Balkans 
Elsewhere (trading communities) 

Total 2,310,000 

The Kurds and Nestorians 

The Kurds also may claim a respectable antiquity, since they 
are admittedly the Karduchoi, whose territory was traversed by 
Xenophon and his ten thousand on their route to the Black Sea. 
They still retain the tribal organisation of those remote times, 
and their present tribes, clans, and septs are past counting. 
Yet their Moslem faith, all being of the Sunni orthodox sect, 
combined with their common Iranian speech, gives them a sense 
of social and political unity, which enables them not only to hold 
their ground, but to dominate over their Armenian neighbours 
(Fig. 240). 

Although neither so chivalrous nor so valiant as they have 
been described by the few travellers that have occasionally visited 
them, the Kurds still display the proud and frank address of 
independent highland tribes. Nor can it be denied that many 
of their lawless habits, and notorious indifference to the rights of 
property, must be attributed to the maladministration of their 
Turkish and Persian rulers. But the worst qualities of the race 
are shown in the Nestorian districts about the headwaters of the 
Great Zab and Lake Urmia. These so-called " Nestorians " appear 
to be the last survivors of a formerly powerful Christian sect, which 
was at one time widely diffused over the vast region stretching 
from the Euphrates across Central Asia to China and Southern 
India. They, however, reject both the name "Nesturi" and the 
doctrine of Nestorius, who denied the divinity of Christ. The 
term is probably a corruption of "Nessarani," from Nazareth, which 
was commonly applied in the East to all Christians. But, however 
this be, they call themselves " Kaldani," or Chaldaeans, and claim 
to be the survivors of the old Christian people of Mesopotamia, 
who were of Chaldaean stock (Fig. 247). Those of Mossul on 
the Tigris still speak a corrupt form of what is called Assyrian, 
but is really an Aramaic dialect closely allied to Syriac. It ap- 
pears to be the same language as that which was introduced into 




FIG. 245. — EHIL WOMEN, KOLARIAN STOCK 
Aborigines of the Western Vindhya uplands 



400 



The "World's Peoples 



Palestine with the return of the exiles from Babylonia, and 
was the vernacular spoken by Christ. 

Despite their restless and predatory habits, the Kurds have 
found time to develop a few simple industries. They breed a 
degenerate species of the Angora goat, from the hair of which 
are woven rugs and carpets, which are all in toned colours, and 
have found their way to the European markets. They also pro- 
duce coarse woollen, silken, and cotton stuffs, besides earthen- 
ware, leather-work, 
hardware, and 
especially arms 
(Fig. 240). 

Closely allied to 
the Kurds, in fact 
of the same stock 
and speech, are the 
numerous Luri hill 
tribes, who give 
their name to the 
Persian province of 
Luristan. This fact, 
about which there 
was much doubt, 
has been clearly 
estabhshed by M. 
J . Rich, who 
declares on his own 
knowledge that the 
Bakhtiari of the 
Bakhtiari Mountains, 
the Zends, the Leks and all the other Luri groups "are really 
Kurds and speak the Kurdish language." Their social insti- 
tutions, tribal organisation, and lawless habits are all much 
the same, except that in recent years the Luri have shown a 
disposition to discontinue their predatory raids and settle do^ to 
peaceful ways under the Persian administration. 

There are also some Kurdish stations in the Balkhan uplands on 
the Russo-Persian frontier, which were planted there in the eighteenth 
century to protect the North Persian provinces against the devasta- 
ting alamans of the fierce Turkoman hordes. 




nolo by Mr. Danah 

FIG. 246. — RAJPUTS OF LUCKNOW WITH BULBULS 
Claim royal descent ; Rajput = "Sons of Kings" 




FIG. 247. — CHALDAEANS OF AZERBAIJAN, PERSIA (SEMITES) 
Are Christians akin to the " Nestorians " of Kurdistan 



36 



402 



The World*s Peoples 



Almost everywhere in West Irania, that is, Persia, the sedentary 
and agricultural aborigines, who correspond to the Eurafricans in 
Europe, are called Tajiks^ and are spoken of as Parsivdn, that 

is, " of Persian speech," or else 
Dihkdn, that is, " Peasants " or 
" Villagers," all being mainly hus- 
bandmen of Persian (Iranic) race 
and tongue. They are divided 
into endless tribal or at least social 
groups, who keep somewhat aloof 
from the original Iranian conquerors, 
so that, especially in the east, the 
ethnic fusion is far from complete, 
the various sections of the com- 
munity being still rather juxtaposed 
than merged in a single nationality. 
This is particularly the case in 
Afghanistan, where the old tribal 
system still persists in full vigour, 
so that it is impossible to speak 
of an Afghan nation, but only of 
discordant masses held loosely to- 
gether by the paramount tribe — at 
present the Durani of Kabul. Unlike 
the Persians, the Afghans belong 
to the orthodox Sunni sect; but all 
alike wear their Mohammedan garb 
very loosely, and still trust far more 
to the magicians, the derwishes, and 
other charlatans than to the efficacy 
of the Koranic teachings. 




Photo by Bourne & Shepherd 

FIG. 248. — SYCE (SAIS) 
An Indian groom 



The Povindahs 



Very distinct in all social re- 
spects are the peaceful and in- 
dustrious Povindahs of the inner Suliman range, who have for 
ages occupied themselves with tillage, stock-breeding and trade. 
These itinerant and sturdy dealers follow their industrious pursuits 



Caucasic Division 



403 



in the face of extraordinary difificulties. In the summer they 
encamp on the plains near Ghazni, where they pay a heavy tax 
to the Amir of Kabul for grazing rights, and where their families 
remain under military protection while they are away trading at 
Samarkand, Bokhara, Herat, and other distant places. In the 
autumn they force their way down to the Punjab through the 




Photo bv ]]'in. Rai 



FIG. 249. — PERSIAN WOMEN IN OUTDOOR COSTUME 
The dress is designedly made as unattractive as possible 



Gomul Pass, fighting their hereditary foes, the warlike Waziri, 
along the route, and encamping on the Derajat plains. From this 
point the men again disperse towards Multan, Lahore, and even 
as far as Benares, retailing their raw silk, druggets, clothes, saddlery, 
horses, saffron, dried fruits, and other wares. In April the 
Povindahs reassemble for the return journey, and ascend the pass 
towards Kandahar and Ghazni. Of all Asiatics they are perhaps 



404 The World's Peoples 

the most enterprising and persevering people under hardships of 
all kinds. 



Ali and the Shiahs 

Most Persians belong to the Moslem Shiah sect, which holds 
that the Prophet should have been succeeded as Khalifa by his 
son-in-law Ali and his two sons Hasan and Hosein. But the 
Shiahs are not confined to Persia, and of the 100,000 who make 
the annual pilgrimage to Hosein's tomb at Kerbela on the Lower 
Euphrates many come from such distant places as Afghanistan, India, 
Tibet, and Russia. With Ali are associated many strange beliefs, 
and some hold that he was not killed at all, his would-be murderer 
having killed a demon who had assumed his form, while the true 
Ali was enveloped in the clouds, whence he is to return to oppose 
the Antichrist towards the end of the world. Hence the saying 
that the thunder is his voice, the lightning his scourge, and that 
he will descend to fill the earth with his justice and take vengeance 
on his enemies, that is, the Orthodox Sunnites. Others again 
think that he is a god with a luminous face, a diadem of fire 
resting on his head, and all virtues flowing from his heart. On his 
back are enrolled the deeds of mankind, and some of these so 
enrage him that he perspires of wrath, and the perspiration has 
filled two seas, one salt the other fresh. Then with his shadow 
he made the sun afid the moon, and all the creatures that dwell 
in the two seas, the wicked in the salt, the believers, that is, 
the Shiahs, in the fresh waters. Afterwards Allah sent Mohammed 
and called on heaven and earth to choose between the Prophet 
and Ali. Ali was accepted with the unanimous applause of all 
nature. But when men were asked whom they preferred, the 
perfidious Omar and Abu-Bekr caused Mohammed to be named, 
since after him they would share the succession to the Khalifate. 
Thereupon Allah justified himself, saying, " It is not my fault, it 
is man who has chosen the Prophet instead of Ali." 



Iranian and Hindu Contrasts 

In Irania the piuto-Aryans, while imposing their speech and 
culture on the aborigines, preserved their own racial characters fairly 



Caucasic' Division 



405 



well. Hence it is that in their historic xecords we read of noble 
rulers, such as Cyrus, Darius, and some of the other Achaemenides ; 
of great heroes, such as Rustam; of poets, mystics, and philosophers, 
such as Hafiz, Saadi, and Omar Khayyam, who can hold their 
own with their European rivals. So also from the Indie Aryans 
we inherit a rich 
legacy of a copious 
and varied literature, 
including great epic 
poems, dramas, and 
endless theoso- 
phistic writings, be- 
sides, in its incep- 
tive state, perhaps 
the noblest of all 
natural religions. 
Unfortunately there 
are fewer survivals 
of the race itself, 
which as it advanced 
farther and farther 
down the Ganges 
basin became ab- 
sorbed, almost sub- 
merged in the dense 
masses of the 
Kolarian and Dra- 
vidian aborigines. 
Their religion also, 
a splendid personi- 
fication of the ele- 
mental forces of 
nature, grew more 
and more debased by contact with the gross demonologies of the 
primitive inhabitants, so that the present Hindu cults, collectively 
called Brahinanisin, are most repulsive. The subject is too vast 
to be more than touched upon here, but it may be stated that 
a large strain of " blue blood " is conspicuous amongst the Kashmiri 
(Fig. 243), the Jats, Sikhs, Rajputs (Figs. 246 and 256), Dards, Siah- 
posh Kafirs (Fig. 257), and others about the north-west frontiers. In 




Photo by Dr. Chalmers 

FIG. 250. — SINHALESE MAN OF HIGH RANK 
Buddhist of Aryo-Dravidian speech 



4o6 



The World's Peoples 



the extreme south also the Sinhalese and the Veddhas of Ceylon 
show Caucasic features, which are even better seen in the 
Todas of the Nilgiri uplands. Although now speaking a Dra- 
vidian language, like all their neighbours, the Todas may be 
taken as almost ideal Caucasians, the type being strikingly Euro 
pean, well-proportioned and stalwart, with straight nose, perfectly 

regular features, and 
a most remarkable 
development of the 
hairy system, as 
amongst the Ainus 
of Yezo, North 
Japan (Figs. 250, 
251. 253, 254, 259). 

The Dravidian 
Aborigines 
But in Southern 
India the Todas 
stand quite apart, as 
the only surviving 
representatives of 
the Caucasic di- 
vision. They are 
everywhere sur- 
rounded by small 
groups of aborigines 
who are all classed 
as " Dravidians," 
because they now 
speak various cor- 
rupt dialects of the 
Dravidian stock language. But this is almost their only claim 
to be affiliated to the great civilised Dravidian nations of the 
Deccan — Telugus, Tamils, Malayalims and others — from whom 
they differ profoundly in almost all respects except speech and 
some borrowed elements of the Hindu religion. All stand on 
the very lowest rung of the social ladder, being rude hillmen 
without any culture strictly so called, and often betraying 
marked Negroid characters, as if they were originally Negroes 




Pkoio by Dr. Chalmers 
FIG. 251 



-SINHALESE WOMAN 



S O 



> 3 




4o8 



The World's Peoples 



or Negritos later assimilated in some respects to their Dravidian 
conquerors. As they never had a collective racial name, they 
should now be called, not Dravidians or proto-Dravidians, but 
rather pre-Dravidians, as more correctly indicating their true ethnical 

relations. Such are 
the Kotas, Irulas, 
Badagas and Ku- 
rumbas, neighbours 
of the Todas on or 
about the Nilgiri up- 
lands, the Paniyans, 
Pulayas, Izhuvans, 
Parayas, Kaniyans, 
and many others of 
Mysore, Cochin and 
Travancore in the 
extreme south. 

Most of these 
wild tribes have 
often been described. 
Hence it will sufifice 
here to give a de- 
tailed account of the 
Kaniyans of Cochin, 
who are typical pre- 
Dravidians, and have 
only quite recently 
been studied for the 
first time by Mr. 
Krishna Iyer. Being 
low-castes like most 
of their fellows, they 
are obliged to stand 
twenty-four feet from 
any Brahman they 
may meet by the wayside. They have a legend which explains 
why they now pursue the curiously incongruous callings of 
astrologers and umbrella-makers. Once, when the God Subra- 
manya, son of Siva, and a friend were learning astrology, they 
heard the noise of a lizard close by foreboding some evil to 




Photo by Doctors Paul and Fritz Sarasin, Basle 

FIG. 253. — A VEDDHA WOMAN 



'ib# 



4IO 



The World's Peoples 



Subramanya's mother. The friend practised some magical rite 
which averted the evil. The mother, who had been in a state 

of unconsciousness, 
now woke up sud- 
denly and asked the 
son who it was she 
was looking at, to 
which he replied 
that she was looking 
at a Kaniyan ("as- 
trologer "), and 
astrologers they have 
been ever since. 
Then another tra- 
dition was that the 
umbrella, the stick, 
the holy ashes, and 
the purse of cowries 
which form their 
" stock in trade " 
were given to them 
by the same god 
Subramanya ; hence 
they are now also 
umbrella-makers. 
This is a fair speci- 
men of the absur- 
dities that are 
constantly invented 
to account for the 
various occupations 
which the castes are 
obliged to follow for 
ever on the assump- 
tion of their divine 
or supernatural 
origin. 

The profession 
of astrology, which was formerly monopolised by the Brahmans, 
is now everywhere practised by the Kaniyans, who are held in 




P)ioto by Doctors Paul and Fritz Sarasin, Basle 
FIG. 255 



A VEDDHA MAN WITH LEAF SKIRT 
Still in the wild state 



Caucasic Division 



411 



high esteem as diviners of future events. They thus occupy an 
important position in all the villages, and their services are in 
great demand even in matters of everyday life. They are always 
at hand to be consulted on lucky days and lucky hours for 
casting horoscopes, explaining the causes of calamities, prescrib- 
ing remedies for untoward events, and physicking sick people. 
The ground cannot be sowed, nor trees planted without their 
advice. They are also required to look up their shastras or 







FIG. 256. — KATHIAWAR PEOPLE 
Aryans of Bombay Presidency, akin to the Rajputs 

sacred texts in order to find out the lucky moment for starting 
on a journey, commencing an enterprise, giving a loan, executing a 
deed, or shaving the head. This is like the habit of some good 
people in Europe of opening the Bible at haphazard for some 
inspiring text in case of doubt or trouble. 

On all such occasions as births, naming of children, shaving the 
boys' heads for the first time, marriage and so on, of course the 
Kaniyan is indispensable. His function, in short, associates him 
with the greatest as with the most trivial of domestic events, and 
his influence is correspondingly great. He finds his word regarded 



412 The "World's Peoples 

with as much reverence as that of the gods themselves, and the 
poor and ignorant follow his counsel unhesitatingly. He is kept 
busy throughout the year. During the harvest he has to collect 
his fees for services rendered, and at marriages he has to cast 
the horoscope of the bridal pair; also of persons who relate the 
events of their lives, for to these he has to point out dangers 
ahead, and prescribe the rules to be observed to propitiate the 
gods and the planets, and so avert disasters. Few members 




FIG. 257. — SIAH-POSH KAFIRS, ARYANS OF KAFIRISTAN 
Show fine Caucasic features and claim brotherhood with the English 

of respectable families fail to provide themselves with horoscopes, 
and nobody grudges a few rupees for the service. 

Two things are essential, a bag of cowries and an almanac. 
At consultations the astrologer takes his seat facing the sun on a 
plank or a mat, mutters some mantras or sacred verses, opens his bag 
of cowries and pours them out on the floor. With his right hand 
he moves them slowly round and round, solemnly recites a stanza 
or two in praise of his god Subramanya, of his guru or teacher and 
of his favourite deity, invoking their help. He then stops, explains 
what he has been doing, takes a handful of cowries and places them 




FIG. 258. — MOHAMMEDAN NAUTCH GIRLS 
Display their charms and dancing skill at the banquets of the rative chiefs and rajas 



414 The World's Peoples 

on his right side. In front is a diagram drawn with chalk on the 
floor, and consisting of twelve compartments. Then he places a 
few cowries in a row on the right side to represent Ganapathy, 
remover of all obstacles, the sun, the planet Jupiter, Saraswati, 
goddess of speech, and his guru. He next arranges the cowries 
in the compartments, and finally explains the results, ending with 
worshipping the deified cowries which had witnessed the 
performance. 

Omens play a great part in the Kaniyan's daily life. Any 
undertaking will prove successful if on starting they see a couple of 
Brahmans, a married woman, a single sudra (low caste), such birds 
as crows or pigeons, such animals as deer moving from left to right, 
dogs and jackals from right to left, wild geese, cocks, peacocks 
seen singly or in couples on either side, the rainbow on either side, 
buttermilk, raw juice, flour, ghi (clarified butter), red cotton, white 
cloth, a red horse, a flagstaff, turban, triumphal arch, a lighted fire, 
good food and drink, carts with men in, cows with their calves, bulls 
with ropes round their necks, the clanging of bells, the bellowing 
of oxen, auspicious words, melodious human voices, sounds of harps, 
flutes, timbrels, tabors, and other musical instruments, and sounds of 
hymns. The list of ill-omens includes the sight of the lame and 
the halt, of broken vessels, of a barber, a widow, a snake, cat or 
monkey crossing the road, kite screaming from the east, a buffalo, 
an ass, black grains, salt, liquor, dirty fagots, any horrible figure, 
ashes, broomsticks, vehicles carried with legs upwards, dishes and 
cups with mouths downwards — altogether the longest lists of good 
and ill omens ever yet recorded. 

In religion the Kaniyans have a plentiful supply of deities, 
worshipping both the Hindu Siva and Vishnu besides their own 
earth-gods, Subramanya for astrology, Sastha for wealth, Sakti in 
all her manifestations, besides the seven planets which are daily 
worshipped after the morning bath. Some of the deities are 
represented by stones placed at the root of any shady tree in 
the compound. The ancestors are remembered at the new moon, 
and a feast is held for the female ancestors generally a few days 
before a wedding, probably to obtain a blessing for the bride. 

When epidemics prevail offerings are made to Marriyamma, 
the small-pox demon, and to Badrakali, patroness of all kinds of 
diseases. On these occasions the priest speaks to the people as 
if by inspiration, telling them when and how the maladies will 



Caucasic Division 



4t5 



cease. Animals, such as cows, snakes, elephants, and Brahmini 
kites are venerated, and the old tree-cult still survives, the objects 
of veneration being the sacred fig {Ficus indica), the margosa, and 
the nelli. During sickness and other troubles a Kaniyan finds out 
the source of the evil with his magic squares of twelve compartments, 
and some claim to be magi- 
cians with power to cast out 
devils with spells and incan- 
tations. 



The Caucasic Polynesians 
and their cosmogonies 

The primitive Ainus of 
Yezo belong admittedly to 
the Caucasic connection, 
and they, I help to indicate 
one of the routes, through 
Siberia, Mongolia, Man- 
churia, and Korea, by which 
the ',* dolmen-building ^ \ Eur- 
africans reached the Pacific 
Ocean in early Neolithic 
times. Another route followed 
by them lay to the south, 
and may be traced by their 
megalithic monuments from 
North Africa through Syria 
and the Khasi Hills to Indo- 
China and Malaysia. All 
along this track, but especially 
in the Far East, we meet with 
peoples of distinctly European fig. 259. 

features, such as the Ka- 
khyens of North Burma, the 
Cambojans of Indo-China, and the Mentaway Islanders off the 
south-west coast of Sumatra (Fig. 260). These Mentaway natives 
stand quite apart from the surrounding Malayans in physical 
appearance, speech, customs, and usages. " They bear such a 
decided stamp of a Polynesian tribe that one feels far more inclined 




— AINU WOMAN AND CHILD 

OF YEZO, JAPAN 
Are of Caucasic stock 



4i6 



The "World's Peoples 



to compare them with the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands " 
(von Rosenberg). In fact they place beyond doubt the long 
sojourn made by the southern branch of the Eurafricans in Malaysia, 
whence they continued their early migrations eastwards to Polynesia. 
Here they met and no doubt intermingled with the northern stream 




Photo by C. B. Klo^i 

P'JG. 260. — CHIEF OF NORTH PAGI, MENTAWAY 

ISLANDS, S.W. COAST SUMATRA 

Are non-Malays akin to the Caucasic Polynesians 

from Korea and Japan, and thus was constituted the Oceanic 
division, which we now call Polynesian in a pre-eminent sense, 
and which occupies nearly all the islands lying east of a line drawn 
from New Zealand through, or a little east of Fiji to Hawaii 
(Sandwch Archipelago). Such are- the Maori of New Zealand, 
the Tongans, Tahitians, Samoans, Marquesas and Ellis Islanders, 



Di 



-aucasic uivision 



41; 



and Hawaiians, all of whom present a most remarkable uniformity 
in their physical appearance, mental qualities, customs, traditions, 
mythologies, folklore, and religious notions. That they are one 
people is obvious, and that they are an Oceanic branch of the 
Caucasic division is now admitted by all competent observers, 
such as Dr. Guillemard, who writes that the Polynesians " are in 




Photo by Mr. C. B. Kloss 

FIG. .261. — SUMATRA NATIVE 
Caucasic type of Malaysia, commonly called Indonesian 

no respect inferior to the average European, either in complexion, 
physical beauty, or nobility of expression." Lord George Campbell 
also declares that there are no people in the world who strike 
one at first so much as these Friendly Islanders [Tongans]. Their 
clear, light, copper-brown coloured skins, yellow and curly hair, 
good-humoured and handsome faces, formed a novel and splendid 
picture of the genus /lomo ; and as far as physique and appearance 

27 



4i§ 



The World*s Peoples 



go, they gave one certainly an impression of being a superior race 
to ours " (Figs. 262-4), 

This description applies with equal force to their mental qualities 
as revealed in many of their poetic and sublime cosmogonies, which 
would almost seem to have accompanied all their wanderings from 

their early 
Asiatic seats 
through Ma- 
laysia to their 
present Oceanic 
homes. Several 
of the mytho- 
logies start with 
Chaos, Immen- 
sity, Gloomy 
Night, and in all 
the cosmogonies 
we find Heaven, 
Earth, the Uni- 
verse, the After- 
world recurring 
under diverse 
names and 
forms, personi- 
fied by language, 
embodied in an- 
thropom Orphic 
theogonies, 
echoes, as it 
were, of the 
Vedic hymns re- 
verberating from 
isle to isle over 
the broad Pacific 

waters. At times the Polynesian singers seem to soar into the 
ethereal spaces, and to grasp the concept of a Supreme Being, as 
when, in the Creation myth, out of the transformed body of Tangaroa 
the lesser gods, the demi-ourgoi, fabricate the universe, and Tangaroa 
himself is spoken of as the Eternal. Or else, like the Hindu Brahm, 
or the Dodonian Zeus, that was, is, and shall be, he is described 




Photo by Mr. J. J. Lister 

FIG. 262. — POLYNESIAN WOMEN 
Fine Caucasic features 



^ 




420 



The World's Peoples 



in the loftiest language as dwelling in the limitless void of space 
when the world was not yet, nor the Heavens, nor the Seas, nor 
Man. From on high he calleth, changing to fresh forms, as 
immanent in the universe, root of the earth, under-prop of the 




Phoio by J. Martin 



FIG. 264. — TONGAN WOMAN 
The Belle of Polynesia 



rocks and spreader of the sea-sands, bursting into light, coming 
down as wisdom, re-born in the Hawaii land, Hawaii the Great, 
the Holy, that is, in Savaiiki, chief island of Samoa, centre of the 
Polynesian world (Fig. 263). 

Much light is thrown by the Polynesian beliefs on the origin 
of omens and ordeals. There is a whole class of bird-omens in 



Caucastc Division 



421 



Samoa, where Sepo Malosi (" Sepo the Strong") is worshipped as a 
war-god, and embodied in the large bat or flying-fox. While the 
bat flew before the warriors all went well and success was assured ; 
but if it turned round and blocked the way it was a sure sign 
of defeat, and a warning to turn back. Elsewhere the bat was 
an incarnation of .^ 



the "Gently Rising 
Tide," and when 
one flew ahead of 
the fighting bands 
it was always a 
certain forecast of 
victory. This re- 
calls the flights of 
the eagles seen 
by Romulus and 
Remus at the 
foundation of 
Rome, with this 
diflerence, how- 
ever, that at that 
time the European 
Ar}'ans had prob- 
ably already ceased 
to believe in any 
spirits embodied in 
the birds, whereas 
this is still thebelief 
of the Polynesian 
Caucasians. 

Something may 
likewise be learned 
regarding the ori- 
gin of ordeals from the statement that in the Samoan shrines were 
kept large shells, stones, coconuts, and other such objects which 
were endowed with mana, and used as aids in the administration of 
justice. In the presence of such potent fetishes the truth was 
rarely concealed. They firmly believed that it would be death to 
touch the cup (coconut shell) and tell a lie (Dr. Turner). Thus 
9,n inquiry into a criminal charge made in the presence of these 




From " The Strange South Seas," hy permission of the Author, 
Miss Beatrice Grimshaw 

FIG. 265. — THE TAUPO FUAMOA 

A Maori of East Taupo, N.Z. 



422 



The WorId*s Peoples 



things served all the purposes of an ordeal. And when they gradually 
became discredited, as having lost their supernatural virtue, they 
were replaced by more efificacious processes, the poison-cup, hot 
iron bars, stones to be fished out of boiling water, duelling 
and the like. But the principle was the same, a steadfast belief 

in the mysterious 
power regulating 
the application of 
the tests in the 
interests of justice. 
In the Maori 
social and re- 
ligious world a 
conspicuous part 
was played by the 
tohunga, a potent 
priest or magician, 
who corresponded 
in a general way 
to the Siberian 
shaman, only was 
much more versa- 
tile and influential. 
When the priestly 
power and the 
rank of chief were 
combined in the 
same person, then 
he was called an 
Ariki, and re- 
garded as the 
supreme head of 
the tribe, a sort 
ot theocratic ruler from whose mandates there was no appeal. 
The Ariki was not only tabu himself, but moreover communi- 
cated his personal sacredness to everything he touched. Thus 
a cup of water or a plate of food presented to him became 
ipso facto tabu, and would be broken by him to prevent 
others from incurring penalties by using them in ignorance. 
People were reported to have died suddenly after thus using a 




From " The Sti'ange SouUi Seas," by permission of the Author, 
Miss Beatrice Grimshaw 



FIG. 266. 



— TAHITIAN WOMAN WITH FLORAL 

HEAD-DRESS 
Note the European expression 



Caucasic Division 



423 



pipe dropped by a tabu chief, or eating the remains of food 
cooked for him (Figs. 267-70). 

Like the shaman or the African medicine-man, the tohunga 
consulted the tribal gods on important occasions, and the response 
was often as equivocal as that of the Delphic oracle. He was the 
sole medium of com- 
munication with the 
ancestral gods, and 
the exponent of the 
karakia or invoca- 
tions, which were his 
personal property, in 
the sense that they 
were often known 
only to him and his 
disciples, and thus 
acquired a certain 
market value, at least 
so long as there was 
no doubt of their 
efficacy. They also 
claimed the gift of 
prophecy, and one 
of the traditional 
forecasts : "When 
the tattooed face 
[the Maori] has 
passed away, 
strangers will oc- 
cupy this world 
[New Zealand]! 
They will be 
white," was verified 
by the advent of the Europeans now masters of Maoriland. 

The prestige of the tohunga was upheld by the firm belief in 
his extraordinary supernatural powers and in his intimate association 
with invisible agencies. He had always at his beck and call certain 
"gods," or other familiar spirits, many of whom had been his own 
ancestors, and would, when called upon, avenge any slight offered 
to their master. As between the black and white shamans (p. 161), 




Photo by J. Martin 
FIG. 267. 



-MAORI WOMAN, N.Z. 



424 



The "World^s Peoples 



so between rival tohungas there was neither love nor forbearance ; 
bitter enmity was the rule, and they did not hesitate to destroy 
one another whenever opportunity offered. But all alike were 
credited with miraculous powers, bringing the dead to life, driving 



^'' 



i,. 




Photo by Herr W. Ditlmer 

FIG. 268. — WANGANUE, MAORI GIRL, N.Z. 



away frosts, causing rain, and performing such astonishing tricks 
as are usually ascribed to Indian jugglers. The case is recorded 
of a notable witch in league with them who when asked to state 
the cause of a certain man's sickness, whether he had or had not 
been bewitched, "after ai solemn invocation to her gods, called 




Photo by J . Martin 

FIG. 269. — MAORI CHIEF, N.Z. 
A Caucasic Polynesian with a slight strain of Melanesian bloocl 



426 The "World's Peoples 

on the heart ot the man who had done the evil to appear in her 
outstretched hand, whereupon a heart, dripping with blood, was 
seen on her hand." Many now living have testified to the truth 




Photo by Hen W. Dittmer 

FIG. 270.— TWO MAORI GIRLS, N.Z. 



of this tale, and Mr. Hetit says: "My father saw it, and it cured 
him of his habit of scofifing at tohungas " (Col. Gudgeon, Journ. 
Polynesian Soc, June, 1907), 



Caueasic Division 427 

The Micronesians 

Micronesia, which extends from the Pelew Islands eastward to 
the Gilbert group, and is inhabited by mixed Polynesian, Papuan, 
and Malayan populations, may for ethnological purposes be included 
in the Polynesian domain (Fig. 271). Hawaiian influences are 
everywhere conspicuous, as, for instance, in the Mortlock Islands 
on the southern fringe of the Central Caroline Archipelago. Here 
the cosmic notions of the Indonesian myth-mongers are " in the 
air," while the dominant ancestor-worship presents some peculiar 
features, the main purpose of which is to uphold the prestige of 
the chiefs both in this and the next world. In some places the 
reigning chiefs have both a temporal and a divine aspect, being 
at once the supreme rulers, the supreme gods, and the high priests 
of their several tribes. At the same time the subordinate authorities 
honour the spirits of their own forefathers, invoking them on all 
ordinary occasions, before making in the last resort the somewhat 
costly appeal to the supreme god, that is to the tribal chief. In 
theory this chief is absolute, but does not receive divine honours 
till after his death, and, as the souls of all the departed are also 
supposed to be deified, the number of the ami (spirits, minor gods) 
would be legion but for the provision that practically those only 
are worshipped who were distinguished by some special qualities 
when alive. They do not communicate directly with mortals, but 
only through a kind of "go-between," mediums or shamans, whose 
office is not hereditary, each deity choosing one for himself without 
monopolising his services, since he is still free to act on behalf of 
any other gods willing to employ him. Besides the tribal gods 
there are several others, such as the war-god Arong, who is honoured 
in the form of a fish. He represents a famous hero, Rassau, who 
was slain in the island of Lukunor and buried in the sea ; hence 
all warriors who fall in battle are now also buried in the sea, so 
that they may join Rassau, mythical god of the sea. 

Nor is there any lack of demons, one of whom infests the large 
trees, but is dangerous only to young girls and children, after sunset, 
the moral being that little folks should stay at home after nightfall. 
Apparitions and other supernatural phenomena are much dreaded, 
and no Micronesian would venture from home alone in the dark. 
They also believe in divination, and have two ways of foretelling 
the future, one by means of knotted coco leaves, the other more 



428 



The WorId*s Peoples 



complicated, but known only to the professional soothsayers. Tabu 
is universal, as everywhere in Oceania^ and there is a " mourning 
tabu " for the great chiefs which is exceedingly burdensome to their 
bereaved subjects. In some places it has to be kept up for a 
whole year, during which they are subject to all kinds of privations 
in respect of food, festive gatherings, and other social usages. 




Pholo by permission of Admiral Sir C. A. G. Bridge 

FIG. 271.— MAN OF THE PELEW ISLANDS, MICRONESIA 

Are a Melano-Polj-nesian blend, as shown in the regular 
features combined witii frizzly hair and tumid lips 



INDEX 



Ababdehs, 315 

Abnaki, 252 

Abongos, 148 

Abors, 193 

Absarokas, 260 

Abyssinians, 324 

Achinese, 214 

j5Eolians, 370 

Aetas, 60, 65 

Afars, 312, 316 

Afghans, 402 

African 'Negroes, 70 sq. 

After-life, 34, 38, 52, 53, 61, 216, 233-5 

Ainu, 165 

Ajawa, 121 

Ake, 246 

Akkas, 149 

Akkado-Sumerians, 152 

Alakalufs, 302 

Albanians, 386 

Aleuts, 249 

Algonquians, 252 

Ali and the Shiahs, 404 

Ama-Tembu, 134, 136 

Ama-Xosas, 132 

Ama-Zulus, 132 

Amerind, meaning of the term, 226 

— Division, General Survey, 22 sq., 226 sq. 

— after-life, 233 

— architecture, 244 

— cannibalism, 237 

— culture, 227 

• — habitations, 241 

— mythologies, 229 

— pantheons, 231 - 

— Shamanism, 230 

— temperament, 235 
Amok, 219 
Amorites, 326 
Anamese, 205, 206 

— religions, 205, 206 
Anatolian Turks, 172, 176 
Andalusians, 356 
Andamanese, 61 
Anglo-Saxons, 338, 374 

— Irish, 344 
Ansarieh, 329 
Anthropoid stem, 3 
A-Nyanja, 121 
Apaches, 252 

Arabo-Berber contrasts, 321 
Arabs, 324, 326 
Arapahos, 243 

Arawaks, 289 
Arboreal houses, 100 
Architectiure, Amerind, 244 
Ardi, 65 
Armaeans, 326 
Armenians, 394 
Arunta tribe, 49 
Arvemians, 339 
AryaiLS, 335 sq. 
- — migrations, 337 



Aryans, Table of, 336 
Ashanti, 88 
Asiatic Aryans, 392 
Askars, 319 
Assinaboins, 260 
Assyrians, 325 
Ashrafs, 315 
Athapascans, 251 
Atitigi demon, 32, 
Australians, 43 sq. 

— character, 48 

— culture and religion, 45 sq. 

— totemic system, 46 
Avars, 182 
Awelimmiden, 319 
Aymaras, 284 sq. 
Azjars, 319 

Aztecs, 270 sg. 

— culture, 272 



Babar natives, 52 
Ba-Bisa, 120 
Badagas, 408 
Baghirmi, 73, 100 
Bailundos, 128 
Bakairi, 290 
Bakhtiari, 400 
Bakwena, 136 
Balbal vampire, 222, 340 
Balolo, 120 
Baltis, 197 
Bamangwato, 136 
Bambas, 126 
Bangalas, 128 
Banka natives, 63 
Bantu speech, 112 
Bantus, 71, in sq. 

— Eastern, 114; Western, 125 ; 

— Central, 120; Southern, 132 
Bari, 108 

Barolong, 136 
Barotse, 136 
Basques, 355 
Bastarnae, 372 
Basutos, 132 
Battas, 63, 216 
Batwa, 149 
Bear-worship, 156 
Bechuanas, 132, 136 
Bejas, 312, 315 
Bena-Riamba, 120 
Beni-Mzabs, 319 
Benin art, 90 
Benis, 88 
Beothuks, 253 
Berbers, 319 sy. 
Biliton natives, 63 
Bisayas, 214 
Bisharis, 315 
Bod-pa, 188 
BolijSociety, 82 
Bonbo religion, 188, 190 



429 



430 



Index 



Bongos, 107 
Borgas, 94 
Borneans, 215 
Bororos, 297 
Botocudos, 290 
Brahmanism, 405 
Brahui, 392 
Bretons, 348 
Bronze Age, 8 
Buddhism, Anamese, 205 
■ — Burmese, 200 

— Chinese, 210 
— -Japanese, 171 
— -Korean, 164 

— Siamese, 204 ,/ 

— Tibetan, 189/ 
Bugis, 214 
Bulgars, 182 
Bundas, 127 
Burgundians, 373 
Burial rites, 129, 138 
Burmese, 198 sq. 
Buryats, 158 
Bushidoism, 170 
Bushmen, 139 sq. 

— folklore, 142 
Bussi, 85 

Calchaqui, 2S8 

Calendar, Maya, 273 

Cambojans, 203 

Canaanites, 326 

Cannibalism, 223, 237, 290 

Caribs, 289 

Carthaginians, 326, 354 

Casas, 78 

Casas Grandes, 266 

Castilians, 356 

Catawbas, 259 

Catios, 237 

Cattle Damaras, 137 

Caucasian, meaning of the term, 12 

Caucasic Division, 307 sq. 

General Survey, 24 sq. 

Cayugas, 256 
Cetywayo, 133 
Chaddi deity, 183 
Chaka, 133 
Chaldaeans, 398 
Chedorlaomer, 154 
Chekhs, 385 
Cheremisses, 182 
Cherokis, 256 
Chibchis, 281 sq. 
Chichen-Itza, 246 
Chichimecs, 271 
Chikasaws, 257 
Chimu empire, 246 
Chinese, modern, 206 sq^_ 

— prehistoric ages, 9 ~" 

— religions, 210 

Chinooks, 262 "" 
Chins, 193 
Chippeways, 252 
Chiriqui, 280 
Choktaws, 257 
Cholula, 244, 245 
Chukchi, 154, 155 
Cimbrians, 372 
Clan, the, 260, 266 
Cliff-dwellers, 266 
Cochin-Chinese, 206 
Cocopas, 242 
Comanches, 243, 265 



Communal houses, 35, 266 

Confucianism, 210 

Congo empire, 125 

Convergence of types, 11 

Copper Age, 8 

Corroboree, 49 

Corsicans, 368 

Creation myths, 193 

Creeks, 257 

Croatians, 385, 386 

" Cro-Magnon Race," 10, 310 

Crows, 260 

" Customs," 89 

Dahomis, 88 

Dakotas, 259 

Dalmatians, 386 

Damaras, 137 

Damas, 137 

Danakils, 312 

Dards, 405 

Dariens, 237 

Death by magic processes, 54, 102, 341 

Delawares, 252 

Demonology, 341 

Den^, 251 

Denkas (Dinkas), 107, 108 

Devil-worship, 218 

— Island, 218 

" Diggers," 264 
Dihkan, 402 
Dog-Ribs, 237 
Dolmen-builders, 310 
Dorians, 370 
Dravidians, 405 
Dravido-Kolarians, 394 
Drum-language, 76 
Dru-pa, 188 
Druzes, 329 
Dume, 149 
Durani, 402 
Dyaks, 215 

Ebisu aborigines, 165 
Egyptians, 312, 314 
Ellis Islanders, 416 
English, 374 sq. 

— character, 378 

— speech, 377 
Eoliths, 58 
Eries, 256 
Eshi- Kongo, 125 
Eskimo, 249 sq. 
Ethiopians, 70 
Etruscans, 349, 360, 364 
Euahlayi tribe, 54 
Eurafricans, 312, 339 
Eurasians, 335 

European Aryans, their divisions, 338 

— superstitions, 339 sq. 

Fantis, 88 

Felups, 77, 78 

Fezzanese, 323 

Finns, 172 

Fire-dance, 259 ,.■ 

— legend of, 58 
Fish-skin garb, 156 
Flatheads, 262 
Florentines, 365 
Formosans, 222 
Foxes, 253 
Franks, 352, 373 
French, 350 sq. 



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